Tintin and me: The Hollywood Affair
by Daniella the muggle
Summary: The sequel to How I met Tintin. After the events of Tintin and Alph-Art, Tintin and co. come to America to visit Jacq at her workplace. But then something comes to threaten the Hollywood film studio and Tintin and Jacq decide to investigate. On top of that, Tintin is starting to realise his true feelings for Jacq. Adventure, mystery and romance awaits! Please R&R!
1. Prologue

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

After a long day at the film studio, Jacq managed to walk back into her apartment in one piece. She dropped her bag and went straight to her bedroom. But before she could lie down she noticed the giant pile of clothes on top of her bed. "Geesh. I gotta fold my clothes," she said. She pushed the pile of clothes to the side. "There. Done." She then jumped on her bed and lied down. It could have been morning or daytime or nighttime, but for all she cared right now it was bedtime.

It's been a month and a half since she started working non-stop and had little time for anything else since. Not even time to sit down. It was enough work for her to be a film extra and a dancer in film, but now she had started to help around the film studio as an unpaid assistant. It was harder than she imagined it to be. She'd do whatever it takes to become a filmmaker. Jacq felt she was inexperienced in the film industry, so her strategy was to get as much experience in the industry as possible and work her hardest. As long as she could convince Mr. Bucks, the executive producer, that she could make a film, then she was one step closer to her dream.

As she lied down on the bed, she kept thinking that eventually she needed to learn how to write screenplays. To Jacq, the screenplay was like the skeleton of the movie: If there's no screenplay, then the film would fall apart. Maybe she could start by learning about storytelling and then learn how to write in the screenplay format. After all, movies are like visual stories.

After a while, Jacq groaned and stretched herself, but then her foot touched something. It was the newspaper. "Oh right, I haven't read the paper in ages." She reached for it and skimmed through it. This paper was probably about a week old. Probably even a bit older. She really didn't have enough time to buy more papers, or even bother to check the date on the paper.

"Let's see what I missed," she mumbled to herself. Jacq skimmed through the front page until she saw the words "_Bianca Castafiore accused of crimes against dictator of San Theodoros. See page 6 for further details._"

"… Bianca?"

Jacq turned to page 6 and read the small article:

"_BIANCA CASTAFIORE ARRESTED._

_The famous opera singer Bianca Castafiore a.k.a. The Milanese Nightingale has been accused for an attempt to plot against the dictator of San Theodoros, General Tapoica. The prima donna had arrived that day in Tapiocapolis, capital of San Theodoros, to continue in her Latin American tour. That night she's been arrested after a gala performance attended by General Tapioca himself."_

"Arrested?" She kept on reading:

"_Following her on her trip was her trustful maid Irma, her pianist Igor Wagner and two high-ranking detectives from Interpol, Thompson and Thomson who were hired to guard her jewels. They all have also been arrested with her that very night. They were under the suspicion of planning to overthrow Tapioca's military forces. Also under suspicion are Captain Haddock, Tintin the famous reporter, and Professor Cuthbert Calculus, all long time acquaintances of both Castafiore and General Alcazar, the previous ruler of San Theodoros."_

"HOLY GUACAMOLE!" She checked the date on the newspaper. It was about 10 days old. "You gotta be kidding me!" Jacq grabbed some coins and went downstairs to the nearest shop and bought a new newspaper.

"Thank you so much!" Immediately after the shop owner gave her the newspaper, Jacq turned the page to find any updates on San Theodoros. As she went up the stairs, she read through the article quickly. "Let's see… conspiracy… friends of Alcazar… Captain denies accusations… Invited to go to Tapiocapolis… 'Haddock backs down'? 'Afraid of the truth'? Who wrote this? I better give them a call. I hope they haven't left yet."

Jacq arrived at her apartment and went to her phone. "Let's see… Marlinspike Hall's number is…" She dialed the number and waited for someone to pick up. "Come on. Come on. Come on." Someone picked up.

"Hello? This is Jacqueline Jones speaking!"

"I'm sorry?"

"Jacqueline Jones! I'm from America! I'm making a long distance call!"

"You're making a long distance call for meat?"

"… Huh? Who is this?"

"This is Cutts the Butcher speaking."

"Oh, sorry. Wrong number." Jacq hung up and dialed again, this time really making sure she dialed correctly. Someone picked up. "Hey! This is Jacqueline Jones! I'm-"

"Yes, 'making a long distance call'. I know. It's Cutts again."

"Dang it! I was so sure I had the right number."

"You do. It's just a problem with the phone connections. It happens all the time. Call once more. It'll work this time, I think."

"Thank you, Sir." Jacq hung up and was gonna try to call one more time. It didn't fail the last time she called Marlinspike.

Someone picked up. "Hello?" said a different voice. Jacq tried to speak. "Hey. Um… Is this Marlinspike Hall?"

"Yes it is."

"Finally!" Jacq thought. The voice said, "May I know who's speaking?" She then recognized the voice, "Wait a sec… You're Nestor! Hi! We spoke on the phone about a month ago? You gave me the number of Tintin's hotel in Sydney. I'm Jacq Jones."

"Yes, I do remember. You're the young lady from America."

"Exactly! Say, are Tintin and the Captain at home?"

"I'm sorry, Miss. I'm afraid the Master had just departed yesterday, but Mr. Tintin hasn't left the estate."

"Oh. Then may I speak to Tintin?"

"Certainly." In Marlinspike Hall, Nestor turned to Tintin who just happened to enter the room at that precise moment. "Mr. Tintin, there's a phone call for you." Nestor passed the phone to Tintin. He said, "Hello?"

Jacq jumped at his voice. "TINTIN! It's been a while! It's me, Jacq!"

"Jacq? Jacq! It's really you!" Snowy heard Tintin on the phone and started panting after he heard her name. "Snowy says hi too. I can't believe it! How are you?"

"Great! Fine! I'm very good!" she responded. The last time they spoke to each other on the phone was when she called him in Sydney. She heard that they survived after their sudden disappearance. They were on their flight to Sydney until something went wrong and were found at sea.

"I've been working really hard on set, and also in the dances and all that stuff. It's tough, but I'll be sure to do my best. Say, I heard about the Captain and the thing about Castafiore. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, right. Don't worry about it."

"I know that you guys are being accused and stuff. I really don't buy it at all. I never did. I mean you guys are good and all. I KNOW you guys are good people. Of course, why wouldn't I? We saved a country together, and you caught many bad guys in the past. Geesh, I wish I could do something about it, but I'm in America and I'm super busy… you know what I mean? So, the Captain and the Professor are gonna go to Tapiocapolis?"

Tintin missed hearing her fast-talk. "Yes he is. He went there to clear his name." Jacq noticed he sounded slightly different. "So why are you still here?" she asked.

"I decided not to go."

"Really? That's… unusual. After all that stuff in the news, I thought you'd go with him and the Professor."

"I'm quite sure it's all a trap to lure us there. I don't know why they'd try and trick us, but the Captain's going anyway."

"But why aren't you going this time? Are you ok?" she sat down on her couch.

"I'm fine… I think… I really don't know. I think I was just tired."

"About what?"

"Everything. Ever since the events in Bordwell ended, I thought I was gonna have a very long break, but during the past few weeks I get lost at sea with amnesia, and right now I'm being accused for a crime I didn't do... I think it's all too much for me right now."

Jacq thought about it. Both she and Tintin had busy lives right now, but Tintin wasn't dealing with some movie props or sets. "Yeah… that is really tough. So many things are coming at you and you can't take a breath… I just hope the Captain and the Professor are fine. Did you hear from them yet?"

"No, I didn't. I didn't really expect the Captain to call me back or anything. But somehow I can't help but to think that they're stuck. Maybe they've fallen into the trap or even gotten themselves arrested."

Jacq noticed the way he spoke. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was a trap. She said, "Say… if you feel that worried, why not go this time and check if he's safe? I mean, unless you think he can handle it there in San Theodoros."

"… He and the Professor could be in trouble, everyone else is in prison, and I'm still in Marlinspike. I don't understand. I should have been thinking about them instead of myself."

"Tintin, it's not wrong to think about yourself once in a while. You're very generous and you shouldn't forget about what you want. As long as you remember about your friends too."

"I know… what I want now is for them to be safe."

"Me too. I just don't know what I'D do if I went there myself. You're better at this than I am."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't know how to handle these kinds of situations."

"No, not exactly. Remember in India when you pretended to be Alexandra and allowed yourself to get captured? Not only did you save us back then, but you also lead us to Atticus and his men. You could still handle situations very well."

"Yeah, but back then I just improvised. I don't really plan these kinds of things. I don't generally make plans. I know it's useful to have a plan and planning ahead isn't bad at all. But in my opinion anything could happen, especially when that moment's right in front of you. We could have all died back there at any point, or maybe something else. What mattered to me was whether I did something at that moment. If I didn't do anything, what kind of person would that make me? Am I making any sense?"

The phone stayed silent.

"… Tintin?" asked Jacq. "Are you still there?" Was it something she said? Or maybe she spoke too much? Or too fast? Did he understand what she just said?

Then Tintin spoke, "Jacq, I've made up my mind and I'm sure about it this time. I'm hopping on the next flight to Tapiocapolis immediately." Snowy barked. "Now that's more like it, Tintin!" said Snowy.

Jacq got off her chair and shouted, "HOT DOG! WOHOO!"

"Jacq?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"For what? I wasn't trying to change your mind or anything."

"No, what I mean is thanks for calling me right now. Just listening to you makes me feel better. I really missed you."

Jacq blushed. "Um… thanks. So I hope you do good in San Theodoros… Please be careful, Tintin."

"Aren't I always?"

"Hehe… also try to stay out of danger."

"Too late." They laughed. "Oh, speaking of which," said Jacq. "I'm sorry I haven't written you guys or a long time. I've been extremely busy."

"You just skipped a week. No problem."

"But I think I'm gonna have to postpone my next letter. We're doing these movie shoots, and they're taking almost forever! And I'll be dancing a lot, and playing tons of extras, and working on props and film, and I think I gotta work on the girls' make-up soon, and… and… I got a lot around me."

"I get it. Take as much time as you want. Right now I'm just glad you called me."

"Yeah, it's great to hear your voice again. I missed you too. Well, I better hang up, or this call will cost me a lot. And I gotta wake up early tomorrow again."

"I get it. Good luck with that."

"Thanks. So again, be careful and please make sure the others are safe and sound, ok?"

"I will. Take care, Jacq. Bye."

"See you soon. Bye." With that, Jacq hung up the phone and leaned her head back on the couch.

**A/N** Finally! The sequel to _How I met Tintin_ is up! It might take a while to upload the second chapter (about one or two weeks? Will you be patient?) but most of the fanfic is done.

To the Jacqtin fans, you'll be happy to hear that this fanfic is gonna have TONS of Jacqtin. The front cover was actually one of the sketches of Jacq that I drew in my notepad. It looks like one of the panels of Rodier's version of _Alph-Art_ because I saw the panel (the one where Castafiore kisses Haddock and then Tintin) and I said "Hey, what if Jacq were the one giving a kiss to Tintin? Heck yeah!" and I really liked in Chapter 13 of _How I met Tintin_ when Jacq kissed Tintin on the cheek. So I decided to upload that drawing (I didn't bother to draw a new one. This one looked just too good!) What do you think? Do you like it?

For the "10 days" thing, to get the time right I looked at _Tintin and the Picaros_ and counted the number of days after Castafiore's arrest to the point in which Haddock arrived at San Theodoros.

A shout out to **Xx Ryo xX** for giving me her view on Tintin's perspective during _Picaros_, to **Pink-Pencil-Girl303** for giving me a tip on my writing ("show, don't tell"), and to **TigerBlack62** because she's ALSO super awesome!

Speaking of which, I made a few small updates on the chapters of _How I met Tintin _just to fix some word choices and to fix a few grammar and punctuation mistakes.

What did you think of this chapter? Are you curious to read the rest? Please leave a comment!


	2. Letters to a friend

**Chapter 2: Letters to a friend**

Outside Marlinspike Hall, Captain Haddock sat down in the garden and drank his second bottle of Loch Lomond. A while back, Professor Calculus had invented a pill that prevented him from drinking alcohol. Although the effects of the pills were temporary, strangely it's been months since Haddock has had any alcohol whatsoever. After the Professor finally found a pill to allow him to drink alcohol again, Haddock was free the drink as much as he wanted. Nearby, Professor Calculus was gardening his Bianca flowers.

Tintin walked up to Haddock and said, "Enjoying yourself?"

"Ah! Tintin!"

"Great to see you like your old-self again."

"Yes, I know. Isn't this life? A bright sunny day and a whisky in my hand."

"Not to mention with all your hair grown back."

"Don't remind me," said Haddock. During one of the attempts to create the product to counter the effects of the pill, the Professor made a pill that ended up making the Captain lose all of his hair. In another trial his skin turned orange, and another trial made him hiccup bubbles.

The Professor giggled. "He! He! Yes, it was very funny when you were bald. You without your beard. He! He!"

"Why is everybody teasing me…?" Haddock jumped. "Wait a second! Did he just hear what I said? Cuthbert! Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yes, yes, I am planning to make another flowerbed. Right around the corner."

"… Oh, never mind."

Tintin said, "Captain, I already told Nestor, but I just want to remind you that I'm not going to have dinner tonight. I'm meeting up with Miss Martine."

"Oh yes… yes… WHAT?" Haddock fell off his chair. "What do you mean? You're going to meet up with that girl from the art gallery?"

"Yes, I'm going on a date with her. Except that she doesn't work in at art gallery anymore; now she found a job in a bookstore."

Haddock ignored the last part Tintin said. "On a date? You're going on a date?"

"Yes. I told you yesterday. You weren't listening."

Haddock stood up. "No! No! I did listen! You're going on a date with Miss Martine! I listened to your every word."

"Oh really? What restaurant are we going to?"

"Um… I can't remember the name exactly, but I know it's… Fre…" Tintin shook his head. "Span…" Tintin shook his head again "Ita… Chine… Japa…" Tintin kept shaking his head. "Gree… Portuguese! That's it!"

"Really? Portuguese?" said Tintin crossing his arms.

"… OK, I admit it! I tried to cover it up, but I did get drunk that night. I can't remember a thing. I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!"

"I get it. I will forgive you. Captain, it's great to see you this happy again, but please don't go overboard. Don't do it just for me."

"Fine, lad… So, you're going on a date with Miss Martine? Didn't she ask you before a few weeks ago?"

Tintin uncrossed his arms. "She did. After we arrived in Italy, she made a stop by the airport and she invited me to meet her parents. She immediately changed her mind about it, but we went out for coffee afterwards. Then she just called yesterday and asked me out on a regular date. She agreed that I could take Snowy too. She likes him a lot."

"I see…"

"… What is it, Captain?"

"No, nothing. Good for you! You have a date!" However, when Tintin said that he was going on a date with someone, something popped into Haddock's head. There was someone else who liked Tintin a lot. Actually she probably loved him after all the events that happened months ago. He was no expert in love, but he remembered that every time she was near Tintin she had a spark in her eye.

"Fine. Speaking of which, we're going to a Belgian restaurant."

"Good! Good!" Tintin didn't move away. "What is it, Tintin?"

Tintin sighed and asked the Captain, "Can I ask you something?"

Captain looked up at Tintin. "As me for what?"

"Advice. I mean, I never went on a date before and I thought—"

"Oh no, no, no! I'm not an expert in these things!"

"But you have fallen in love before, haven't you? That means you must have gone to at least one date."

"Well… eh… fine, lad. Umm…" Trying to think of something, he said, "Try to act normal."

"Normal?"

"No wait, that's not good." Haddock remembered. Last time someone had asked him for advice, he told her the exact same thing. It didn't help. "Be yourself… I think. But wait… you don't love Miss Martine, do you?"

"What? No. She's a nice lady, but I don't."

"Then why are you asking me for advice? Are you nervous about meeting her?"

"No. It's just as I said before. I never went on a date before and I just want to know how they work."

"I think you call it a date when you like someone. You don't have to love her necessarily, but the reason someone asks someone out is when they're interested in the other. I think she really likes you, Tintin."

"Maybe she does, but I don't know what to think of her. I don't think I ever had time for anything like that. More like I never thought about it. Maybe I should go. It'd be a new experience for me." Thanks anyway, Captain. I'll see you later."

"Alright. Bye now." As he saw his friend walk back to the mansion, a thought still floated around Haddock's mind: Jacq. He wanted to ask Tintin whether he ever thought about Jacq, but couldn't bring himself forward to stop Tintin and ask him. It's been a while since they've seen Jacq. Tintin could have just forgotten about her. He doesn't want to jump into assumptions. If it turns out he doesn't feel anything for Jacq, then the Captain would be asking him a silly question. Maybe he should ask later, after Tintin's date.

Xxx

In the living room, Haddock and Calculus were waiting for Tintin to arrive. "I wonder where the young man has gone to," said Calculus. "He missed dinner with us."

Haddock went towards the Professor and screamed into his deaf ear, "I TOLD YOU ALREADY! HE'S ON A DATE!"

"At eight? But it's ten already."

"FOR THE FOURTEENTH TIME! AND I'VE BEEN COUNTING! HE'S OUT WITH SOMEONE!"

"Aaron? Who's Aaron?"

The Captain sat down back on his chair and thought, "Thundering Typhoons. Luckily I can drink my stress away again."

Calculus stood up and went towards the Captain, "Now you listen, Captain, I asked you a question. I want to know where Tintin is. I'm beginning to get worried. Did this Aaron man do something to him?"

Then Nestor came in and said, "Master. Mr. Tintin has returned."

"He's back?" Haddock went outside. He saw the motorcycle enter the estate. Tintin stopped the motorcycle and him and Snowy went off the bike.

"Hello," said Tintin. He took off his helmet. Calculus went up to him and gave him a big hug. "Tintin! We were so worried about you!"

Tintin looked at Haddock. Haddock said, "I did try to tell him. I swear."

Calculus put Tintin safely on the ground, and Tintin proceeded to take off his dog's helmet.

They went inside and the Captain asked, "So, how did it go?"

"For the first time on a date, it wasn't so bad. It was fine, I think."

"Just fine? It wasn't anything special?"

"Not exactly. But it was still nice." They sat down in the living room. Haddock eagerly asked, "Go on. What happened? I want to know."

"Well, Snowy and I met up with Miss Martine, who looked excited to see me. We went to the Belgian restaurant and I asked her about herself and her job at the art gallery…" Tintin went on with the details about Miss Martine and the rest of the evening. It seemed like a decent date.

Tintin was starting to finish his story, "And then I walked home with her and then wished her a pleasant night. All in all, I thought it was good..." Tintin concluded. Then he looked down.

"You don't look that way," said Haddock.

"What do you mean?"

"I meant what I said. It doesn't look like you liked the date a lot."

"I did like it. But…" Tintin looked hesitant. "Alright, I'll be completely honest. It was a good night, but there was something else that bothered me the entire time."

"What was it?"

"While I was talking to Miss Martine in the restaurant around the dessert course, she asked me if I wanted to go to the movies afterwards… the first thing that popped into my head was… I don't know if it's appropriate to think about it during a date, but it just did… I don't know if I should have thought about it… I mean…"

Haddock said the first thing that popped into his head. "You thought about Jacqueline?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

"I… umm… Who else talks about movies all the time? Well, not all the time, but once in a while."

Tintin chuckled. He walked towards the window and looked at the stars in the sky. "Yeah, that's Jacq. It's probably not right to go on a date and think of someone else. And don't get me wrong, Miss Martine is a nice young lady, but I couldn't get Jacq off my mind. I've been thinking about it the rest of the night, and Miss Martine did notice that I looked a bit absent-minded."

Snowy added, "Believe me, he almost crashed into a tree on our way home! He really was distracted!"

"And you're thinking about her now," Haddock leaned back on his chair. "When was the last time she sent us a letter?"

"I don't know, but I do know that the last time she called me was a few months ago. She must be very busy in the film studio… I miss her…" said Tintin still gazing at the night.

"Yes, I miss her too… So what is it that made you think about her so much?"

"I think…" Tintin pondered about it. Then he said, "Maybe I haven't thought about her for such a long time that being reminded of her now caught my attention. When I think about her now… I feel a bit different. Captain, remember I told you about that one particular time she called?"

"While Cuthbert and I were in San Theodoros? Yes I do. What was it exactly? Did she say anything in particular?"

"We just talked to each other briefly. I didn't feel like myself lately, so I was glad to receive a call from her. I'm not entirely sure if she really encouraged me to go, but all I knew was that as I listened to her speak… the more and more she made me feel like myself again."

"Ah, I see…"

"She always said something right, even though she doesn't realize it herself."

"Maybe she just talks so fast she can't keep track of what she's saying." They chucked.

"Yes, that does seem true. Now I have a strange feeling, Captain. I just wish I could talk to her again. At least just see her face again… I've got it!" he said turning around to Haddock. "Let's go and visit her!"

"But Tintin, won't she be too busy to see us?"

"Not if we let her know first. We can call her right now. But wait… it's about 3 or 4 o'clock where she is. Isn't it? She could be working during that time. Probably working at late hours as well, and I don't want to bother her while she's working. Let's send her a letter instead."

"Good idea," said Haddock. Tintin went to grab a pen and some sheets of paper. He didn't tell her about their last adventure, so he thought he could write it to her. "Captain, do you want to write anything for Jacq?"

"Ah, don't worry about me. You write the letter."

Tintin proceeded to write:

"_Dear Jacq,_

_How are you? It's been a long time since I sent you a letter. How did the filming with that Western film go? Is it going to be released soon? What else are you working on? And how's your next screenplay? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions._

_I don't know if you read in the newspapers about the art forgeries and about Ramó Nash. We had a wild adventure in Italy. It's been months since I had an adventure. Remember my last adventure in San Theodoros?_" Tintin proceeded to write the details of the adventure in his words. He used about three papers to write the whole thing. As soon as he finished, it was about 11:30 at night. He concluded with, "_Overall it's good to be back home. I hope everything is well with you._

_I really miss you._

_In fact, I was recently wondering, if you aren't too busy, how would you like us to come visit you in America? It'll be me, Snowy, the Captain and Professor Calculus coming to visit. Unless you're carrying too much work on your hands, we'd all love to see you again._

_Your friend,_

_Tintin_"

"There. All done."

Xxx

About two days later, they received Jacq's letter. "It's here," said Haddock holding the letter and walking into the kitchen where Tintin and Snowy were having their breakfast. "Jacqueline sent us a reply." Tintin grabbed the letter and opened it immediately, finding about two pages in the envelope with tons of writing all over it. He read out loud:

"_Hey Tintin!_

_Thank you so much for the letter! I am so sorry I didn't send you a letter or even give you a call!_

_WOW! What a story! Who ever knew that the art business could be so exciting? I'm just glad to hear you're all ok. I haven't been to Italy in ages! Since I was a kid!_

_So the Western film went well and we just finished filming. They finally confirmed the title: it's called _Bright Red Sunset _and it's gonna be released once post-production's done. They announced the release date is in three months._

_Again, I am really, really, really sorry about not calling you or sending you a letter! I really am! Please forgive me! It's just that I am a bit busier than usual, but I'm almost done with a movie script and done with most of a movie shoot. I'm also working on another movie starring Sally South. It's all really exciting, and production is much more fun when I hang out with Sally._

_Even so, I think it's a GREAT idea for you to come and pay a visit! Around next week would be great. I can show you around the film studio and then I can show you around Hollywood. You'll love it there. Let me know as soon as possible who's coming and what time you'll be coming._

_Maybe if I'm not too busy in a few months, we could also decide when I can come to Marlinspike._

_Oops! I think I wrote too much! Oh well…_

_Can't wait to see you!_

_Your friend,_

_Jacq_"

"YAHOO!" Tintin jumped out of his chair. "We're going to see Jacq! We're going to see Jacq! Tralalala!" Tintin grabbed Haddock and started dancing around the kitchen. He let go of Haddock who was trying to stop spinning. "This is fantastic! I'll go get some paper and write another letter!" Haddock thought as he tried to keep his head still, "Blistering Barnacles." Then he looked at Tintin and couldn't help but smile.

Tintin put some paper on the table and started writing his letter.

"I think I'll write my own letter to Jacqueline." The Captain grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote:

"_Dear Jacqueline,_

_I don't remember the last time I've been to America, but I can tell you I've never been to Hollywood. Perhaps we'll bump into some movie stars. Will you introduce us to Sally South?_

_We're ecstatic to finally see you again, and I'm very curious to see your workplace. I heard you're working very hard. You should be very proud!_

_Which reminds me, Tintin sent you the letter because he couldn't stop thinking about you. You might have some luck with him this time, if you know what I mean._

_See you soon._

_From,_

_Captain Haddock_"

"There," said Haddock folding his paper. He waited for Tintin to finish his.

"There. I'm done too. What did you write?" asked Tintin.

"None of your business."

"Alright, alright. Just put it in the envelope." Haddock attached his letter to Tintin's letter. "Come on, Snowy, let's go to the post office."

**A/N** I hope you enjoyed this chapter. What'll happen in Hollywood? Will Tintin see Jacq as more than a friend?

I can relate to Jacq that I write A LOT. My e-mails are usually really long! I send some of you private messages, so some of you can tell how much I write!

So this is after the events Yves Rodier's version of _Tintin and Alph-Art_, except not exactly. According to Rodier's version, the comic takes place years after the events of _Flight 714 to Sydney_, but I changed it to months after the events of _Flight 714_. How many months passed is up for the reader to decide. So if anyone read the Yves Rodier version of _Alph-Art_, they'll remember that in the end it's revealed that Martine had a thing for Tintin. I don't know if Hergé would have planned something like that or not, but that's also for others to make-up their own minds on.

And another thing: the "Tralalala" was something I thought Tintin would say. I mean he HAS said it before, like the time when he heard that Chang was coming to visit (in _Tintin in Tibet_). But I'll remove it f there's anybody who thinks it sounds weird.

I'm so glad people love what I write! I feel extremely honored to hear you guys say that. If not for you, I wouldn't have had such a blast writing the second fanfic. Thank you guys! You rock!


	3. Picture is up

**Chapter 3: Picture is up**

"Snowy, look over there!" Tintin lifted Snowy up so that he could see through the window of the plane. They all looked at the Hollywood sign and saw how sunny and bright the place was. It was almost time for the plane to land on California.

"Christopher Columbus!" Haddock thought. "One wonders why Jacqueline talked about travelling so much when she's living here?"

After they left the airport, they took a taxi and arrived at their hotel. They left their stuff there and went to the place where Jacq worked: Vermont Studios. They arrived at the big dark-green gate and Tintin spoke to the guard, "Excuse me. We're here to see Jacq Jones. I'm Tintin."

"Oh, it's you guys. She said you'd be here. But you was supposed to come much later?"

"We decided to come and surprise her. Unless she too busy?"

"Oh, ok. Nah, she ain't too busy, actually. She's probably in the office next to Studio 9. She's with Mr. Bucks. Go to the third left, then straight and you'll find it." He opened the door for them.

They entered and saw various people moving around with either a costume or carrying a prop or equipment. "Look at this place!" said Tintin. "Aren't you seeing this, Snowy? Snowy? Not again." He spotted a little white dog carrying an extremely large bone walking towards them. Snowy said, "Look what I found!"

"Snowy! Put that back now! It's not a real bone!"

"Not real?" Snowy sniffed it. "How did I not notice that?" He left the prop behind him and followed Tintin.

They passed Studio 9 and saw that inside they were preparing a set for a movie. There was a small background of a city and a few smaller buildings on the side to make it look like a big city on camera. There was a larger side of a building built on the side, and on another side there was a background of a street.

"Come on! We need our actor!" shouted a small-nosed man with a thin moustache, short black hair and round sunglasses. He was a bit chubby. "We're wasting valuable time! We're wasting our budget! What's taking him so long?" The crew on set was moving around preparing the camera, lighting, sound equipment and making sure that the set pieces in the right places.

Calculus stopped to admire the model they did for the city. "Amazing! It looks like a real building from afar!"

"Cuthbert, we'll have time to see the sets after we see Jacqueline," said Haddock pulling the Professor away, who didn't listen to him.

They arrived at the building, and went up the stairs. They saw a long corridor with four offices on each side of the corridor, and a big office at the very end. It was quite warm inside, so the windows and offices were open for everyone to work in.

Across the corridor, they saw a man around his early forties, wearing a white shirt and a yellow tie. In front of his desk was someone with familiar, big curly hair.

It was Jacq! They couldn't see her face, but from the back they saw that she was wearing her usual light-pink shirt, and instead of long pants, she wore shorts. Tintin walked in high anticipation. He was shaking a bit and tightening his fists, so he took a deep breath and exhaled while shaking off his hands.

As they reached the end of the corridor, they tried to grab her attention, but the man kept shouting through his black phone, "No! No! I said I wanted the film done by Friday! Tell that Richard that he can shove the script into his mouth if he can't do it by then!" He slammed the phone down. The phone rang and he picked up the phone. "Hello? NO! If you want to see me again, you're going to have to wear a mask, because I don't want to see your dirty face again!" He slammed the phone hard. "Simon! Where are the papers I asked for? And where's my sandwich? Anyway, kid, take my advice and—WHAT DO YA WANT?" He said shouting at the people through the door.

Jacq turned around to reveal that she was wearing sunglasses due to the sunlight coming through the window. She noticed Tintin and company. Jacq let out a huge grin. She took off her sunglasses and said, "Tintin!" She ran up to Tintin and gave him a big bear hug. Although she was almost strangling him, Tintin hugged her back anyway.

"You're really here! All of you!" She let go of Tintin and gave a hug to the Captain and Snowy. "It's so great to see you here! I thought you guys were gonna come much later!"

"We wanted to surprise you," said Tintin.

"Man! You guys are amazing! It's great to see you too, Professor! How are you?"

"Yes, very warm in here. I'm fine, thank you, Miss Jacqueline. How have you been? I thought I was going to see you in December."

"Um…" Jacq remembered that there was a slight miscommunication with the deaf Professor. "Not exactly," she said raising her voice louder, "I've been very busy! Sorry I didn't come visit! I was working!"

"Walking?"

"Working! I've been busy!"

"Walking around the city?"

The Captain interrupted them, "Just ignore him. He does this all the time."

Jacq turned around to introduce Mr. Bucks. "So, guys, this is Mr. Bucks, an executive producer, and also the Chief Operating Officer of Vermont Studios. Mr. Bucks, these are my friends. Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and Snowy."

"How do you do?" said the Professor.

"It's nice to finally meet ya. Jacqueline here told me all about it," said Mr. Bucks who shook their hands. "And I actually did hear about you before, Mr. Tintin. When ya went to Chicago and when you— Not now, Simon! I'm talkin' here!" They turned around to see a wormy-looking guy with big glasses who was outside the door. "Um… sorry for interrupting you, Mr. Bucks. I'm have all your papers here, and your sandwich, no ketchup, and Mr. Maroon wanted you to know that Joey… he quit."

"Joey the cable guy, or Joey the actor?"

"The actor."

"Are ya kiddin' me? Okay, fine. Let's get the understudy. Call Butch."

"I did, Mr. Bucks. But he also dropped out."

"Fine, then call…"

"And Harold. And Roy. And Riley. And Jules. All of them quit."

"WHAT? How's that possible? Why would any of 'em want to quit? Especially today!"

Calculus asked, "A play? I thought this was a film studio."

Haddock shouted at the Professor, "He said 'today'! They need to finish filming today! THEY'RE FILMING!"

"Ian Fleming? So they're adapting one of his novels into a play? Have they done _Casino Royale_ yet?"

"Thundering Typhoons, you unbelievable—!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey! You!" said Mr. Bucks. Haddock pointed at himself confused. "Yeah, you! You scream often?"

"Eh… once in a while."

"And ya get angry a lot?"

"Eh… aye…"

Mr. Bucks observed the Captain. "Simon, ya think he'll do?"

"Eh… I think so, Mr. Bucks."

"Ok! So, Captain, right? I'm sorry if this is outta nowhere, and if this affects your vacation plans, but just for today, we need to finish some scenes for a movie, and I was just wonderin' whether you'd like to help us out."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. Luckily you came in here today. We've been workin' on the project for quite a while, and if we don't finish this, we can't make a profit and we'll lose a lot of money. I just need your permission first, if you don't mind me askin'. Please?"

"But why me? Just because I scream and shout?"

Mr. Bucks put his hand on Haddock's shoulder. "Right now, we need someone who knows how to get angry. By the looks of you, I think you'd fit in the role very well." Jacq tried to hide her smirk.

Haddock thought, "Hmm… letting someone lose his project is a horrible thought. I can't let this happen to him." He then nobly said, "Very well! I'll do it!"

"Great! Let's get you to Studio 9. Simon, go tell Mr. Maroon not to worry. Thank you for helpin' us out!"

"Aye, that's no problem. I'm just doing what's best."

Jacq started to giggle. "What is it?" asked Tintin. "Oh, you'll see," said Jacq still with a smirk on her face. "Tintin, do you know what kind of movie this is?"

"And who knows? Ya could become a star after this role!"

"A star? Hmm… I like the idea. What a way to start my vacation. Captain Archibald Haddock on the big screen! A movie star!"

_Ten minutes later…_

Haddock's screamed in a giant gorilla costume. "BLISTERING BARNACLES!" Luckily he was just the right size.

"Wow," said Tintin, "When he said he'd fit the role, I didn't think he meant it literally."

"And action! Come on! Walk around and destroy the buildings! Give me anger! Give me a monster!" said the film director, Mr. Maroon.

"This is unfair! I am not a monster! I demand respect!" Haddock kept on screaming through his mask, but all that could be heard were some gruff muffling sounds. He knocked over the small buildings as the camera kept on rolling. Tintin and Jacq tried to stop giggling, but all they could do were cover their mouths. Calculus kept admiring the visual effects of the scene play out. He rarely went to the cinema, but to see everything in an actual film studio, he started to feel more interested the technology and technicalities of cinema.

Mr. Maroon kept on going, "Yes! That's right! Give me more tension! More intensity! More anger! More destruction!"

"Oh, I'll show ya! I'll show you all how angry I can get! You freshwater bullies! Pirates! Ectoplasms! Sea-Gherkins! Nyctalops! American rascals!"

"Keep the camera rolling. This is great stuff! Go on! You're angry at everyone now!"

Snowy thought, "Not a hard job for this man."

Tintin and Jacq stopped laughing and observed the filming take place. Haddock was doing better than they expected. "He's doing a good job, isn't he?" said Jacq.

"I know. But what exactly happened to the other actors? They just quit?"

"Yeah, they were meant to fit in the costume, but according to Simon, they all just quit unexpectedly and never called back."

"That's strange."

"I concur…"

After shooting a few scenes, including the scenes with the human actors, the director said, "CUT! That's a wrap!"

As the crew took down the equipment and turned on the lights of the studio, Haddock took off his costume. "Thundering Typhoons! This costume is an oven! And it stinks! Why does everything happen to me?"

"Captain, you were awesome!" said Jacq.

"I thought you were giggling."

"Yeah… I'm really sorry about that. Sure, I thought it was a bit funny at first, you being associated with a giant gorilla and all, but then you went on and I really enjoyed your performance! You're a good actor. Very convincing."

Tintin didn't want to admit that he giggled as well, but he had to agree with Jacq, "Yes, you did very well. Good for you!"

Everyone passed by him and congratulated him, especially Mr. Maroon who shook his hand vigorously. He said, "Good job, fellah! Without you I don't know where I would have been! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Although Captain Haddock was ranting all the way through, he didn't expect everyone to be so impressed with him. "Hmm… Everyone likes me… It wasn't so bad after all. Maybe I was given more respect than I thought."

"I wonder what this does," said the Professor releasing a lever. A dummy fell on top of Haddock causing him to hit the ground hard.

One of the crew asked, "Alright, who released the dummy? That was supposed to be for _The Three Buffoons_ sketch! Now we have to put it back up again!"

Tintin helped him up. Haddock said, "Billions of Blistering Blue Barnacles! I swear that if something else happens-" Then the Captain fell down a trap door. All that could be heard was his scream fading and then a thud. Then the Professor said, "Oh, so that's what this other lever does. What an interesting device!"

As the crew went to get a ladder and take him out, Jacq thought, "I don't know if this is funny or cruel or both, but I'm starting to get an idea for a comedy."

"Come on! Get the guy outta there!" said Mr. Bucks. Then he turned to Jacq and said, "Thanks a lot, kid. If your friend hadn't come here, we wouldn't have been in big trouble."

"No problem, Sir."

"I don't know how to thank you. Hey, are ya still goin' to tonight's party?"

"… I didn't plan in going."

"Ya ain't? Why not? Come on, kid! Loosen up! You been workin' non-stop for the past few months. I think ya deserve a break."

"Well… actually, I'll go only if my friends go."

"That's my point! I wanna know if you're still going to the party, so that I can invite your friends too."

The crew helped Haddock out of the trap door, and he came out kneeling and breathing heavily. "You ok?" asked Jacq. He mumbled to himself, "Billions of blue blistering boiled and barbecued barnacles…"

"Good. He's still his usual self," said Tintin. "Captain, Mr. Bucks said he's inviting us to a party tonight."

"It's to promote the gorilla movie. That's why we wanted to finish the footage today, but we kept getting delay after delay. Believe me, it'll be a lot of fun. We'll have famous directors and critics come, as well as some movie stars. Jacqueline here's already invited, so I could include ya in the list. After what ya done."

"Really? I say yes! What do you say, Tintin?"

"I guess it'd be fun. Sure, why not?"

"Great! Anyway, I'm sorry, folks, but I gotta go now. I'll see you all later tonight. And kid," he said to Jacq, "I'll read your script later, so please don't get too nervous. Like I said, I'm givin' ya the rest of the day off, so try to relax for once. Got it?" He left the studio.

"I'll try…"

"Why are you nervous?" asked Haddock.

"I... well, I've been working hard on my script, and I had to hand it in today."

"That's great, Jacq! What's it about?"

"Well, it's a crime film… I don't think I did too well, but it's worth a try. The writing was pretty generic and the second half's full of plot holes. But I tried to write it the best way I could. In fact, I came in a bit earlier than I should have."

"Why's that?"

_Earlier that day…_

Jacq had realized she had fallen asleep on top of her desk. In front of her was her final draft for her script, and the final page hanging on her typewriter. "Ugh, I've been typing all night. If I hear another sound from pressing on that LOUD typewriter…"

TACK! TACK! TACK! TACK! TACK!

Jacq heard a noise of her typewriter, but she wasn't pressing on any key. She lifted her head and looked up. She noticed a small penguin figurine typing the final page for her script. The Penguin stopped typing, turned to Jacq and said, "Oh! You're awake! I finished a few details of your movie. There are still a few mistakes here and there."

"Huh?"

The penguin lifted her alarm clock and showed her it was twelve. "Do you know what time it is? You're late!"

RIIIING!

"Ah!" Jacq woke up with the sound of the alarm clock and noticed her script was still there. Although the clock said eight o'clock, she ignored it and pulled her things. She wrote a few more details on her script. "Oh geesh! Oh geesh! I hope this isn't bad!"

She ran down with her hair messy and her script in her bag. A woman in her fifties saw Jacq running down the stairs. It was her neighbor, Mrs. Portman. "Oh, good morning, Jacqueline."

"Morning! No time! Gotta run! Work!" Jacq said quickly as she ran towards the door.

"Work? Isn't it a bit early? Don't you want to have breakfast? Or…" Jacq passed through Mrs. "…at least brush your hair?"

Jacq turned around and said, "BUT THE TALKING PENGUIN TOLD ME THAT I WAS GONNA BE LATE!" And she ran out the door.

Mr. Portman, her husband who was a bit older than his wife, looked out the door half-asleep and said, "What's the matter with her?"

"Wally, I know Jacqueline's a great person, but sometimes I get why they call her an oddball."

_The present…_

"A bit hard to explain. Anyway, this is actually my fourth attempt at script writing."

"Fourth?"

"Yeah. The first script was an adventure film, but it was generic and stupid. Next was a comedy, but none of the jokes were really very good. Then I tried to do something a bit more serious, but westerns were no good. And now I'm trying a crime drama. I fixed all the mistakes I had before and I've been working really hard. I hope I did my best." She said with a bit more enthusiasm.

Tintin saw great determination in her face. She looked more tired than before, so she was probably working much harder than he thought. "Well, I think you're doing well then. When you want to improve, you have to be aware of your own mistakes. Although I know you can write something good. If your parents have that writing talent, so do you."

Jacq's expression changed. Tintin stopped, "Jacq, what's wrong?" He noticed that she looked troubled. "Nothing," she said and changed back to her usual self. "By the way, remember I said you'd meet Sally South? Wanna meet her right now?"

"Absolutely!" said Tintin. Then he remembered that for a girl who seems as ordinary as Jacq, she sure does live in a rich family and know many people like these: the Royal family of Bordwell, Sally South herself, Signora Castafiore, and so on. Maybe she's a magnet for these kinds of people. Maybe that's how she ended up meeting Tintin in the first place. What a lucky girl.

After finding Calculus wondering around the sound equipment, and getting Haddock out of his costume, they walked to the place where they'd find Sally South. They entered a big studio where they saw many people moving around. It was much larger from the inside, and the film had an appearance of a small courtroom. "They're filming a romance thriller. Sally's playing a woman who's trying to prove that someone framed her for a murder. It started with this love triangle and all. Believe me, it's a good story."

The Professor said, "A store? It looks more like a courtroom to me."

They went past the set and reached the make-up room. Jacq knocked on the door. "Who is it?" asked a womanly voice with a slight Tennessee accent.

"It's me! Jacq! I brought my friends with me!"

"Oh! Sure thing! Come in!"

They opened the door to reveal a lady wearing a grey suit and a white scarf; an outfit that women usually wore in the 1920s, and had her hair tied up. She was holding a script, probably reading through her lines. "Jacq! What's up?"

"I'm good," said Jacq. "So here are my friends. This is Tintin, the Captain, the Professor, and their dog Snowy."

Sally stood up. "Dolly! So these are your friends! How you doin'?" Tintin and Haddock stood still. It's just that they were standing in front of such a famous actress. Sally expected an answer, but there was a long pause in the room. "What's the matter, Ponyboy?"

"Ops!" said Tintin snapping out of his awe. "I'm so sorry, I was… I mean… I'm Tintin."

"Don't worry, I get that a lot. It's a pleasure to meet y'all. Jacq talks about you all the time. She told me about all the stories, and about the whole adventure you had. Jacq, I have to say you are one lucky girl. I mean, what an experience!"

"As amazing as meeting you," said Haddock introducing himself. "I am Captain Archibald Haddock. I have seen most of your films, and you were amazing in all of them."

"Thank you, Mr. Captain," said Sally. "It's hard work, but I love doin' it. My mamma always told me to do what I love, but also to work real hard. That's how I achieve things. So, as I was sayin', I heard about ya from Jacq. Tintin's the world famous reporter, Haddock's the guy with the whole Unicorn boat!" Tintin and Haddock smiled at Jacq for the fact that she told Sally all about them. "And, Boy Howdy! I'm meeting the great inventor himself! The man who invented the rocket ship! And ya went to the moon! When I think about it, they can really make a film franchise out of you and your friends."

"No, I'm sorry," said Calculus, "I swore never to act in another Hollywood film ever again. But thank you for the offer."

Jacq asked, "The Professor was in a film?"

Sally asked, "Is that so? What was that film? And why can't ya be in another?"

Tintin said, "It's a bit of a long story. Please don't ask."

Then someone else knocked on the door. "Filming is starting in a second, Sally."

"I'm comin'. How's about we get this show rollin'?"

On their way to the set, Sally whispered to Jacq. "That Tintin is a handsome feller in real life. No wonder ya like him!" Jacq nudged Sally. Sally giggled back.

**A/N** Sorry, I meant to post this yesterday, but I realized something and I wanted to change things around. Oh well! What'll happen at the party?

I just noticed that whenever I said "Jacq and Sally", it sounded like Jack and Sally from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_. Just in case you're wondering, no, I did not make any reference to that film or to those characters. It was an accident. Although it's a great film!

Anybody got the _Prisoners of the Sun_ reference?

Actually, because this writer got inspired by my previous fanfic to write her own, I feel the need to mention it here: It's **An Adventure to Remember** by **luvAdventure123**. If you love my fan fiction, go read this fanfic with my compliments! I always feel honored when that happens. When they say something like: "I love what you do so much that I feel inspired to do something great!" It's a fantastic feeling and it just makes my life whole life worthwhile. Believe me, someone saying that you inspire them is one of the best compliments you can get in life. Remember that.

See ya soon! And thanks for all the support! You guys rock! ;)

Please review!


	4. Silence on set

**A/N** **Part 1:** Before you start reading chapter 4, first thing's first: I have a humble message to one of my fellow readers. This chapter is dedicated to **luvAdventure123**, as today (9th of November) is a special day for her: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I'm very glad you got inspired to write because of my fanfic, and I hope you find more inspiration in your life! I hope you have a wonderful birthday, and I wish you the very best!

Everyone wish her a Happy Birthday!

Without further ado, ENJOY!

**Chapter 4: Silence on set**

Later that night, Tintin, Haddock, Snowy and Calculus met up with Jacq in her apartment to go to the party, all of them dressing up more formally. Jacq had done her hair again, put on some make-up, and was wearing a light-pink dress.

They arrived at the party in the film studio. It was almost entirely packed, but Jacq managed to get her friends inside. It was a special party venue for filmmakers to promote the release of their films, and was also used for other occasions such as celebrating the premiere of a recent film, or celebrating someone's Birthday. The place, although not with the tall ceiling as one might expect, was a wide, fancy hall with elegant glass windows and doors and light-green, flower-printed curtains. One room on the side was specifically for projecting films for the party. Famous filmmakers, people from the press, the studio crew, and especially a few movie stars came tonight in party outfits, drinking champagne, and talking to each other, while producers of the film talked to the people of the press about their film. It was slightly crowded, but not a bumpy place.

Soon, Jacq spotted someone and said, "Professor, I heard you were interested in the magic of cinema. There's someone I'd like you to meet. Hey Tulio! Over here!" She waved her arms and caught the attention of a very tanned man with black, curly hair. He walked towards them. "Jacqueline! You came! Finally!"

"Yeah! I'd like you to meet my friends. This is Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, and their dog Snowy. Guys, this is Tulio. He's from Brazil and he's in charge of the visual effects of some of the studio's productions. He's also an expert in props, mechanics, and a bit of cinematography. The Professor actually loves the work you did with the film."

"Really? You like what I do?"

"You come from Peru? You do look South American," said Calculus. "In fact, I remember a few years ago I was in a film about the Incas in Peru."

Haddock tried to assure Tulio that the Professor was hard of hearing, but then the Professor took something out if his pocket. "Just a moment." He adjusted the hearing aid on his ear. "There, now we can speak. It's quite loud in here."

Haddock's expression changed, "You had that all along?"

Tintin asked, "Why didn't you use that before?"

"Oh yes, but I'm only using this for loud places. I'm just a bit hard of hearing in one ear." Jacq and Tintin gave an uneasy look, but Haddock just looked frustrated. After a while, Tulio and the Professor ended up talking with each other for the rest of the night about the technology in film.

A group of girls from afar spotted Jacq and said, "HEY! Over here!" They came over and met the girls. There were six girls there wearing very bright coloured, girly dresses. One of them, a tall girl with short black hair, didn't look too pleased to see Jacq. Jacq introduced her friends to the girls. They were choir girls who also had a few roles as extras in some movies. The girls went immediately towards Snowy. "Oh! Look at his cute ears!"

"I love dogs!"

"I want one just like him!"

"Me too!"

"Aww… You're so sweet!"

Snowy thought, "I'm starting to like this place already!"

The girl with black hair, named Roxie, looked at Jacq said, "Well, I didn't think you'd make it."

"Well, yeah. I wanted my friends to have some fun tonight, and Mr. Bucks invited them."

"Oh, how nice," said Roxie bitterly, but Jacq didn't seem to mind her attitude.

The rest of the girls stayed around Snowy and began to ask Tintin and Haddock some questions about their lives. They heard from Jacq about their adventures, and one of the most recent adventures she took part on. After they answered the girls' questions, Tintin asked about their lives in the film studio. Some of them aspired to be a star like Sally South, including Roxie, and some of them just wanted to be part of the whole fun. As the conversation developed, Tintin noticed that Jacq tried to join in the conversation, but kept hesitating over and over again.

"Um…" she finally spoke and everybody looked at her, "I… have to go to the… thing… be right back…"

Jacq left the girls and went outside. "_Weirdo_," mumbled Roxie. Tintin left the Captain and Snowy with the girls to check on Jacq. He caught up to her in the garden where there were a few people chatting. She was standing in front of the small balcony, where the colourful lights of the city could be seen from afar, but all she could look at was the light of the full moon. "Jacq? What's wrong? You look a bit upset."

Jacq turned around and said, "No, I'm not… I'm sorry. I'm just… uh… Fine." She sighed and proceeded, "The truth is I'm trying to strike up a conversation. But whenever I try to do so, I become shy."

Tintin chuckled. "You? Shy?"

"Really! I'm telling you! It's not as easy as it looks! Most of the time I feel they talk differently."

"How come? They're American, you're American, right? How do you talk any different?"

"But they don't travel all over the world all the time. I sometimes feel out of place here."

"Very ironic, isn't it?"

"Yeah. As an aspiring filmmaker, I have to learn how to communicate. Sell my ideas… and stuff… but lately things aren't going as well as planned. Even when I try to write now. Before a story came to me easily, but now it's all confusing."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure my last script's just another failed attempt. If I don't write a good script, or prove that I can make a good film, then Mr. Bucks won't give me any permission to make a film or have a larger position in a film production."

"Well, just because you can't create an original script, that doesn't mean that you can't tell any story. You said it once in a phone call. It's how you handle the story that matters. The way you tell the story."

"Yeah, and I had many ideas before in the past. I know I could try and make an independent film, but I have to learn how the industry works, how the production side works- UGH! There I go again! Talking too fast again! And I'm not even letting you speak now! I'm just annoying you!"

"No, Jacq. I think you speak well."

"Really? Sometimes I feel like I bore people because I talk a lot. Or sometimes I'll talk so fast that they think I'm crazy. Although not all the time. I really gotta work on that."

"Not exactly. They don't understand you. I can talk to you. You just need to relax a bit. That's all."

"I guess… I wanna be a filmmaker, but there's something missing now." Jacq gave a look that Tintin had seen before. That night when she had her nightmare and Tintin stayed with her and comfort her.

Tintin said, "Jacq, don't put yourself so down. I remember that night when you told me you wanted to become a filmmaker. You were extremely enthusiastic. So where's that confidence now? Don't lose hope in yourself. You know you have talent. So relax. Don't worry about it so much."

Jacq looked at him and smiled. She still looked a bit uncertain of herself, but said, "Oh, you can always come up with the nicest things to say. You are just the sweetest and kindest guy I have ever met."

"Eh… thanks."

"Seriously. I'm so glad you came. When you and the others are around, you make me feel so much better. I feel happy being myself around you."

Tintin looked at Jacq. Behind her were the blurred and colourful lights of Hollywood. He stared at her with the moon lit over her face and the moon shining in her eyes. He suddenly blushed and felt shaky. Jacq asked him, "Are you ok?"

"I-I-I…"

"Jacq!" said Sally South waving from afar, wearing a long scarlett dress and her hair up in a curly ponytail. She excused herself from the group of people and came towards Tintin and Jacq into the garden. "Hey Sally!" said Jacq now back to her usual self.

"You finally came, didn't ya? About time you had some fun! Say, where's Mr. Captain and that Professor feller?"

"Oh. Calculus is with Tulio, and Captain Haddock's with the choir girls."

"Ah, I see. Enjoying yourself, Ponyboy?"

"I am. You look very good tonight," said Tintin now a bit calmer.

"Thank you! Real gentlemen, you are!"

"So this whole party is to promote the gorilla film, am I right?"

"That's correct."

"Speaking of, what's the name of the gorilla movie?"

"_The Gorilla Movie_."

Then Jacq said, "I know. Very original. This film has a pretty low budget compared to the other _Vermont_ productions, so this time they couldn't even afford to think of a better title." Tintin and Sally laughed.

Sally said, "Good one, Sugar! Yeah, it is true. Mr. Maroon wanted to make a better film than the previous one. The last one flopped pretty badly in the box office. A shame. Wasn't amazin', but it still was a good movie. So he cut down the budget a bit on this one to make more profit next time. And the gorilla movie ain't sound that bad. I'm lookin' forward to see Mr. Captain there."

"He actually makes a very good gorilla," said Jacq.

"Speakin' of, I heard about Joey and the other understudies. Sad about that. Strangely enough, Joey didn't even come to the party today. Oh look! That's Mr. Marty Calvin over there!" She pointed at a white-haired man talking to Mr. Bucks on the other side of the balcony. "He's a film distributor, and he's distributin' the film I'm in. _Twelve Hours_."

"Is he distributing the gorilla movie?" asked Tintin.

"Nah. He ain't distributin' this one. But he distributed Mr. Maroon's previous movie. Actually, we need to get a few more distributors. The movie company ain't doing so good, so he's helpin' out. I otta introduce ya to 'im."

They went towards Mr. Bucks and Mr. Calvin. "Hi! Mr. Calvin!"

"Oh look!" said Mr. Bucks, "That kid I met earlier! A friend of Jacqueline's."

"Is that so?" asked Mr. Calvin. "Nice to meet you, young man. What do they call you?"

"Nice to meet you too, Sir. I'm Tintin."

"Tintin? Where have I heard that name before?"

"He's a famous reporter! He goes 'round the world catching criminals!" said Sally.

"… Is that so?"

"Something like that," said Tintin.

"… Interesting. Miss Jacqueline. Miss Sally. Both of you look fantastic tonight."

"Thank you," they said in unison.

"Mr. Bucks was telling me how very happy Mr. Maroon was when you brought in your other friend. It was just our luck he came. So where is he? I'd like to meet him."

"He's nearby. I'll go get him," said Tintin. He went inside to search for the Captain.

"So, Jacqueline," said Mr. Calvin, "How are you doing? Still working hard in the studio?"

"Very! I hope that I become a filmmaker like Robert Wise or Alfred Hitchcock."

"Oh, interesting… And you're still not thinking about becoming an actress?"

"Well, yeah I considered it. I do like acting, and overtime I enjoyed it more and more, but—"

"Then I keep askin' ya: why aren't ya doin' acting?" asked Mr. Bucks interrupting her.

"I'm getting there. If I were ever to act, I'd be a filmmaker first. Becoming an actress now would just pull me down from making any film."

"So that's your strategy, kid?"

"Yeah, Mr. Bucks."

Mr. Calvin tried to persuade her more, "But you should think about your acting talent. I offered you a chance to be in _Twelve Hours_. I can give you another chance with my next film. Don't waste your talents. In fact, don't waste that opportunity or else—"

"Sir, with all due respect, I know what I want," she said a bit upset. "I'm sorry… but I've been dreaming of become a filmmaker for a long time, and I'm trying the best I can to achieve that goal. Mr. Bucks, did you read my script yet?"

"Jacqueline," said Mr. Bucks. "I invited ya here to loosen up, not to think about your script. If it matters to ya so much, I'll tell ya tomorrow how it fairs up. Now it's almost time to screen a bit of the movie. GREGORY! TELL THEM TO START SETTIN' UP THE MOVIE! So try to calm down. Got it, kid? HURRY UP!"

Tintin grabbed Haddock and Snowy, and brought them to meet Mr. Calvin. A while later, everyone was taken to the screen to see a sneak peek from _The Gorilla Movie_. "We're going to show some of the scenes with the Captain in the costume," said Mr. Bucks to the group.

Mr. Calvin leaned over to Mr. Bucks and whispered, "I still think she's wasting her time. Why doesn't she just become a star? That's what every girl wants."

"Jacqueline ain't like other girls," he whispered back.

"She wants to be a filmmaker first and an actress second? If you ask me, she's far from Orson Welles. Those scripts were terrible."

"Shut it, Calvin. She may not be the greatest filmmaker, and may not look like one now, but I'll tell ya that kid's got somethin' else. She's definitely got heart." People were still waiting for the film to come up on screen.

Someone shouted, "What's taking so long?"

"Yeah! We wanna see some gorilla action!"

Mr. Bucks shouted, "COME ON, FELLAS! TURN ON THE MOVIE! That's strange. They should have turned it on a while ago."

Then someone ran up to Mr. Bucks and said quietly so that no one else could here them. "Mr. Bucks. We have a problem. It's the film reel."

"What d'ya mean? Ya can't find it? Mr. Maroon gave it this afternoon, didn't he?"

"Yeah, and we do have it… it's just that it's a MAJOR problem. We just called in Mr. Maroon. Come, quick." Mr. Bucks followed the worker, and Jacq instinctively followed them. "Jacq, wait!" said Tintin following her. Then Snowy followed Tintin, and then Haddock followed.

Mr. Bucks noticed Jacq walking fast by his side and he asked, "Hey! Why did you and your friends follow?"

"I was curious. And I think it's the same reason for these guys."

Haddock said, "To be honest, I don't know why I came along. I'm probably just used to it by this point."

They reached the projector room on the other side of the party. The people at the party were told to stay where they were while they checked on the technicalities. They entered the projector room, and found Mr. Maroon already inside. He held the film reel: it's been tangled up, scratched, and cut into many pieces. The film was ruined.

"What happened?" asked Tintin.

One of the people from the projector room said, "We were going to set up the film reel on the projector, and when we opened the case, we found it completely destroyed."

"Mr. Bucks," said the second person of the projector room, "I think it's better if we use a different footage from the same film."

"Well! I don't know who could have done this, but I ain't gonna let 'em ruin anythin'. We'll deal with this later. Right now I'll go get the reel. We can't keep the party waiting any longer." He picked up the keys in the pocket and went out quickly to his office.

Jacq and Tintin looked at each other with the same thought in their heads. They were starting to suspect something going wrong. Why would anyone want to ruin someone else's film? Mr. Maroon looked especially agitated and left the room and dropping the ruined reel on the floor.

"This is a disaster," said Mr. Maroon leaving the room.

Jacq said, "I'm getting a bad feeling about all this."

"Me too. There might be something going on here," said Tintin.

"And just when I thought I was going to have a normal vacation," thought Haddock in disappointment.

Almost half an hour had passed and Mr. Bucks hadn't arrived yet. What was taking him so long? Tintin, Jacq and Haddock agreed to go and check. On their way to Mr. Bucks' office, Snowy picked up a scent. He barked to his left and ran towards that direction. "What is it? Is someone there?" said Tintin following his dog. The rest followed. Jacq was able to run in her dress and her shoes, as she wasn't even wearing such high heels anyway.

Then they stopped in front of a building, next to the prop house, and heard noises coming from inside. "That's where the film library is," whispered Jacq. She quietly led them to the entrance and noticed three men who had opened the door of the library. They were pulling out film reels of the films between pre-production and post-production, as well as some film stock needed for some films. "Look at that!" said one of the men, a chubby man, looking through a film reel. "That's Sally South! She's a real dish in this new one! I think she's in the party!"

"No time for that. Put it in the rest of the pile," said the tall one. He pulled out the film reel of _Twelve Hours_ and started cutting them into pieces.

"HEY! He can't do that!" said Jacq. If they didn't do something, they were going to destroy the films.

"Sh!" said Tintin. "Right now we have to take care of these guys. Jacq, can you think of anything we can use from the prop house against these men?"

"I don't know where to get any prop guns."

"Don't worry about that."

Soon, Jacq went in stealth mode to grab some rope from the prop house. She arrived back, and the men were almost done with half of the film reels and film stock. Once the time was right, they entered quietly, and Tintin, pretending to hold up a gun, said "HANDS UP! Don't turn around or I'll shoot!"

They raised up their hands instantly. "Now drop your weapons," he continued. The men dropped two guns. Tintin picked up both guns and pointed the guns at them. Haddock had the pleasure of tying them up. As he was tying up one of the goons, he asked "Now what are you rascals doing here? Why are you destroying the film reels?"

"Jacq, go get the guards. Quick!" said Tintin.

"GUYS! Look out!" said Jacq noticing someone behind them. Someone hit the Captain and Tintin from behind and they fell to the ground. "Tintin! Captain!" said Jacq. She tried to throw a punch at the big man, but he grabbed her fist and punched her in the stomach. She fell to the ground from the pain. Snowy tried to bite off the man's leg, but the man kicked Snowy away. Luckily the dog wasn't seriously injured.

"Come on! Let's run! The cops are coming!" The men grabbed their guns and escaped, one of them still running with the rope tied around the upper part of his body. The guards, Mr. Buck's and his assistant, Simon, came running towards the building. The guards tried to catch on to the mysterious men, but it was too late. The men had escaped. Apparently the man had stolen the keys to the film library and hit him in the head in his office. He called Simon and they called the police and got the guards from the studio. They entered and helped the people up. "Are you ok, Jacq?" asked Tintin helping her up.

"I'm fine… this pain at least means that I'm alive…"

A few minutes later, the cops arrived from the back gate, as to not create any commotion in the party, and everything was explained to the guards, showing the mess that was made in the film library. Mr. Bucks, talking to the guards, said, "I don't get why someone would do such a horrible thing. We're actually in a crisis right now. Our company ain't doin' so good financially. So much so that we have to rely on others to help finance our future projects."

"Yeah…" said someone taking a picture of the pile of destroyed film reels.

"The past few projects a while back lost us lots of money. So it was a relief to finally see some new commitment, includin' the generous cooperation of Miss Sally South. After the production of _Bright Red Sunset_, I knew we was goin' to produce quality works and save the studio."

"Go on," said the person now writing down Mr. Buck's statements.

"And just as we was promotin' _The Gorilla Movie_, someone had to come by and ruin everythin'. So much hard work lost. We don't even have enough money to re-shoot the scenes on time for the release dates. I don't want _Vermont Studios_ to shut down."

"Good. Good. Say, is there a hyphen between 're' and 'shoot' for the word 're-shoot'? Or do I write it as a whole? 'Reshoot'? Whatever."

Then Mr. Bucks turned his head to the man, "Hold on a sec! You're not a cop! You're a journalist! Don't write any of this down!"

"Are you kidding? This is gold!"

"GET OUTTA HERE!"

The journalist pranced off like a child getting away with stealing candy. "Ah! Let that jerk go! People are goin' to find out anyway!" said Mr. Bucks and sitting down on a chair now even more saddened. "Everyone'll soon find out about cancelled projects and soon enough everyone'll know about the end of _Vermont Studios_."

"Poor Mr. Bucks," said Haddock. "If only there were something we could do."

"Well, now I'm pretty sure someone's trying to threaten the studio," said Tintin.

"But why _Vermont Studios_?" asked Jacq. "From what I can tell, _Vermont Studios_ wasn't any threat to anyone or any other studio, and Mr. Bucks didn't have any enemies or anything." But before the trio could ponder about it, someone came by and told them that there was a problem at the party. They reached the party and heard people complaining and begging for some entertainment.

"Let's have a sneak preview!"

"It's late at night! We've been waiting forever!"

"Where's the gorilla?"

Snowy thought, "Some people can be so impatient."

"Oh, fine," said Mr. Bucks. "I'll get the film now. Luckily those men couldn't find _The Gorilla Movie_. Mr. Maroon asked me to hide the rest in the safe in my office." He went to set up the movie right now in the projection room.

The people at the party were finally watching the movie at the party and enjoying themselves, but Jacq pulled Tintin away for a second in the back of the crowd in the dark. "Hey, Tintin," Jacq asked, "I don't want to point fingers at anybody, but don't you think it's convenient that Mr. Maroon had put the footage of the movie in a safe?"

"What do you mean?"

"Although this is just a theory, it's almost like Mr. Maroon knew about something that was going to happen."

"You think he had planned this?"

"No, not exactly. For whatever reason he had his film inside a safe, I still think he's a lead. He just might have something to do with this whole thing. Or at least he knows something about it."

The scene finished, the lights turned on, and a satisfying audience applauded for Mr. Maroon. And then they called out for Captain Haddock to come. Tintin said, "Come to think of it… what about those understudies? They unexpectedly quit the role of the gorilla monster. If Mr. Maroon were behind this, it wouldn't make any sense to get rid of them."

"I know. That does seem suspicious. So what does it all mean?"

"Maybe I should find out tomorrow."

"You mean WE should go," she said with enthusiasm. "Unless the Captain doesn't want to come, and I don't know about the Professor. Then it'd just be me, you and Snowy."

"But aren't you working tomorrow?"

"And miss out on all the action? No way!"

**A/N Part 2: **Looks like we've got a mystery ahead of us!

Another thing: Hey everybody! I have a twitter account, so if any of you have a twitter, and you want to get new articles from my film blog (Dani and the Screen) and want to know when a new chapter comes up, you can follow me on twitter: **Dani_the_muggle**

Thanks to **TigerBlack62** for mentioning me in the last part of her fanfic! You're awesome! Your fanfic was awesome! Loved it!

I also replaced the "THE END" at the last chapter of **How I met Tintin** to "TO BE CONTINUED…" because even though it doesn't matter that much, it'd make more sense by the fact that I'm continuing the story and planning a trilogy. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave reviews!


	5. Roll sound

**Chapter 5: Roll sound**

**A/N Part 1** Based on a comment said by **Pink-Pencil-Girl303**, I fixed up some things in chapter 4. I realized I focused a bit too much on dialogue, so I decided to add a bit more description of the place and a few other things, as she said. If you'd like to re-read chapter 4 (updated on Saturday, 18th of November), you can. If you already read the updated version, enjoy chapter 5!

All over the city people had read the following headline in the front page of _The Daily Observer_ newspaper:

FILM REELS IN VERMOUNT STUDIOS DESTROYED!

Is the studio being threatened?

This had almost immediately spread all over the city and everyone heard the news. Some of the guests at the party only found out about it much later, as they were distracted with the entertainment, while others had found the rumors of last night to be true.

Outside _Vermont Studios_, TV reporters stood outside making live news reports, and other reporters and photographers tried to sneak into the studio. Mr. Bucks had to call in more security the guard outside the entrances. Even so, the crew and actors inside the studio started were talking about what had happened last night.

The police continued to investigate the scene of the crime, and asked people inside the studio for any witnesses. Although most people hadn't noticed for being at the party, some guards and people outside had heard noticed noises coming from the fence. Those noises last night probably served as a distraction for the men to enter the building, or possibly as one of the suspects trying to sneak in.

Tintin, Jacq, the Captain and Snowy sat down inside Mr. Bucks' office in front of his desk, except for the Professor who walked around the whole studio carefully observing his swinging pendulum following its given directions.

Mr. Bucks leaned his back on the wall in stress, and poured a drink for himself. At that particular instance, Haddock could completely relate to him. Then Mr. Bucks looked up at them and said, "Sorry, would anyone like a drink too?"

"Yes," said the Captain instantly. Mr. Bucks poured the Captain a glass of Jack Daniels. Mr. Bucks swallowed his entire drink and said, "I don't know how much longer I can handle this." He put his glass on the desk, sat down and took a deep breath. "Right… I think I'm good now."

CLICK!

They all turned to the left window and saw a familiar looking young man. He had climbed up the building and had captured a picture of them. "Perfect!"

Tintin said, "The journalist from last night!"

"I'm a photographer too!"

"Why you nasty little-!" said Mr. Bucks as he was about to throw himself towards the guy. But the man had quickly slid down the pipe on the side of the building, reached the ground and escaped on a bicycle which he had left there. "DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" He shouted at the guards trying to catch up to the photographer. Mr. Bucks sat down in his desk and said, "Unbelievable… I HATE them! Those people from the press! And those obnoxious reporters! Always nosing around everybody's business just to get a story! No offence, kid."

"None taken," said Tintin understandingly.

Mr. Bucks looked at Tintin and said, "I'm so sorry for everythin'. I didn't want you to get into such a mess."

"It's fine. I'm used to these sort of things."

Snowy said, "Biggest understatement of your life."

"Don't worry, Sir. We'll do as much as we can."

"But where to start? The police don't know anything about it, do they?"

Jacq said, "Actually, Mr. Bucks, Tintin and I think we might know where to start. We aren't implying that Mr. Maroon was the one doing this, but-"

"Mr. Maroon? It couldn't have been him! They tried to destroy his film!"

Tintin asked, "Then why did he ask you to put the rest of the film reel inside your safe? Maybe he knew about the crime beforehand?"

"Maroon often puts the film reels in his own safe so that he'd look over the film personally, to avoid anyone else from tamperin' the scenes. Our previous editors got carried away with the film stock, but even with the editors replaced, he'd plan the editin' himself. He gave me the film reel this time, because his safe apparently needed to be replaced."

Tintin and Jacq looked at each other. Then Tintin continued, "It's like Jacq said: we aren't implying that Mr. Maroon was behind everything, but we just thought he might know something about it." Tintin crossed his arms and leaned back thinking, "Or perhaps it has to do with _The Gorilla Movie_."

"How?" said the Captain quickly finishing his drink. "If they just wanted to destroy _The Gorilla Movie_, why destroy the other films too?" He extended his arm with the glass towards Mr. Bucks who poured more whiskey into the cup. "How do you know it isn't another movie?"

"Mr. Bucks, we have another favor to ask you. Can you give me the contact numbers of all the actors from _The Gorilla Movie_? The ones who quit?" Although just a theory, Tintin gave himself a feeling that there was a connection somehow: all the actors quitting to play the gorilla, then someone comes by and destroys the film itself.

Mr. Bucks asked Simon to pull out the number and gave it to them. Jacq made the first phone call to Joey. Someone picked up the phone, and Jacq said, "Hello, Joey Manola? This is _Vermont Studios_ calling, I wanted to ask—"

CLACK!

Jacq held down the phone and said, "The guy just hung up."

She went on to call the rest of the numbers. About three of them weren't home, but some of the people hung up immediately without saying anything, and the two last ones said, "Sorry, I don't know about the news of Vermont Studios!" and "I have nothing to do with the crime! Please leave me alone!"

Jacq looked back at Tintin again. Haddock hated when that happened. He felt a bit left out. But they all agreed that it couldn't have been normal. Mr. Bucks asked, "So what now?"

"I say if we can't speak to them by phone, we might as well go ask them personally."

The group took the addresses they needed, but before they left the studio, they tried to look for Professor Calculus. They couldn't find him anywhere, so Jacq went to Tulio and asked him to let them know if he found Calculus, and also keep an eye on him when he does find him.

When they went out of the green gate, they couldn't escape the building without having the press coming at them and surrounding them. "Mr. Tintin! Is it true that you're going to help with the investigation?"

"You were all there last night! Do you know something that the police don't know?"

"Are you helping out the police?"

"Do you know what this means for _Vermont Studios_?"

They tried to squeeze themselves out of the crowd, and soon after about two minutes they escaped. They ran as fast as they could, across about three blocks, and finally managed to lose them.

Later, they went together to each apartment, the ones who hung up at least, and ask them about why they quit and if they knew anything about the crime.

The first one they went to was Butch Collins, one of the original understudies who lived in a building in the 4th floor. He had worked on a few of the gorilla scenes when Joey wasn't available. When they reached the apartment, they rang the door and Butch opened. He was about the same height and size as the Captain, except he had short brown hair.

"What do you want?" said Butch fearfully.

"Hello, Sir. We came here to ask you a few questions," said Tintin calmly.

"About _Vermont_? I don't know anything about it. Why do you ask me?

"We're looking for answers about the film studio, and we're talking to the understudies that quit their role of the gorilla in _The Gorilla Movie_."

"Were you the ones who called?"

"Yeah, I did," said Jacq. "Please, calm down. We're not—"

"Go away! NOW!" He slammed the door.

"Blistering Barnacles!" said the Captain.

After knocking the door many times and not receiving a response, they decided to head to another location. They headed off to the next locations, further and further from _Vermont Studios_. Snowy was starting to get tired with all the walking. In every address, the people from the apartments didn't respond, even though they knew that they were trying to hide from them. What exactly were they afraid of?

They finally arrived to see Joey, the original actor playing the gorilla. By the time they arrived at his address, it was nighttime. They arrived at a small apartment, one of the furthest locations from the studio, climbed up the narrow stairs to the second floor, and knocked on that door. Joey asked behind the door, "Yes, who is it?" he said with a slight accent from Little Italy, New York.

"Hello. Is this Joey Manola? I know this might seem inconvenient to you, but we're here to ask you about _Vermont Studios_."

After a long pause, Joey said, "I don't know nothin' about it."

"Come on! If you don't help us, then whatever might happen might threaten everyone in the studio!" said Jacq. "Please, I'm begging you."

"Hang on… Jacq? Is that you?"

"Um… yeah, that's me."

"I thought I recognized that voice on the phone."

"You didn't recognize me the first time?"

"No, I did, but at the moment I was… well, it's not important… Please… I can't talk to you now. I ain't a good time."

Tintin decided to speak to Joey and said, "Look. My name is Tintin. We're not here to threaten you. We just want to know something important."

Joey said after a short pause, "I'm sorry. I ain't no use to ya. I can't help ya."

"Then why did you sound so agitated in the phone?" asked Jacq. "Why didn't you just tell us that you didn't know anything? Why so stressed?"

"Whatever it is, we can help," said Haddock.

There was still no response. He was obviously hiding something. Tintin said, "Mr. Manola… Joey… we went to all the other understudies, they all quit and they all refuse to talk to us. It's no coincidence. We're sure there's some connection."

"They all quit?" thought Joey. He asked, "I read the newspapers. You're some kind of detective, Tintin?"

"No, I'm a reporter. But I do help the police once in a while."

"Ah… So, if I let ya in, can I really trust ya?"

"Of course you can, lad!" said Haddock. "This is Tintin we're talking about! No need to fear!"

After a few seconds Joey finally opened the door finally deciding that he was safe enough. Also with the same height and size as the Captain, yet curly black hair, he invited them in. They sat down in the slightly small, yet still comfortable apartment. It was an apartment with white walls, yet it had dark furniture and old pictures of his family in New York, which made the room appear darker than it really was.

He sat down in his old red couch, while the rest sat down in his dark brown sofa in front of him. "I don't know why this happened. I was just doin' my job."

"Tell us," said Tintin.

"About a week ago, I had just finished most of the filming from the movie. I was walkin' back home when… Some men stopped me." He said in a lower voice and tightened his fists. "And they beat me up."

"What?" They all said in unison.

"Yeah. I couldn't see their faces, because one of them blindfolded me, but I was pretty sure there was more than one man. They punched me a few times, and afterwards they said that if I were to ever get near _Vermont Studios_ again, talk to anyone from the studio, or contacted anyone about this night, they'd kill me."

"Oh dear! That's dreadful!" said Tintin.

"I know. I was about to call the police when I came back home, but I didn't know if someone was following me. I was too scared to even think about it. So as I was told, I quit my job to stay away from the studio… and I refused to talk to anyone else about it."

"Do you have any idea who it could have been?" asked Tintin.

"Nope. Not a clue. But it ain't so bad! I might start my career in a bakery! I always wanted to do so! Actually, I wanted to be both an actor and to also bake my own special cupcakes! Wanna try some?" He went quickly to the kitchen and came back with medium-sized cupcakes with pink and white frostings on top, and flower designs on the top. The colors of the cupcakes contrasted with the colors of the apartment itself.

They later assured Joey that he'd be safe, and in Joey's request, they were not to tell the police about this, for the sake of his safety. Although it's most likely just to scare them, they'd never know: Someone might be able to infiltrate the police and find out that one of the men, including Joey, had confessed what had happened.

As they went downstairs, Jacq carrying a box of homemade cupcakes and eating the pink-frosted cupcake, they talked about it with each other. "So that's what probably happened," said Jacq still with some frosting on her upper lip. "Whoever threatened Joey also probably threatened the other men the same way." She licked the frosting out of her mouth and said, "OH MAN! Does this guy know how to make cupcakes!"

Then Tintin said with his finger tapping his chin, "The real question on my mind now is, to whomever did this, why didn't they just threaten Mr. Maroon himself? Force him to cancel the production?" Jacq, walking down the stairs behind the two men, took another big bite out of the cupcake, eating almost half of it. Tintin continued, "And it doesn't make sense for Mr. Maroon to be behind this, or else why make such threats in the first place? I feel he has something to do with all this, but I still don't know what."

Then Jacq stopped, still chewing. Tintin and Haddock looked behind and noticed her face. "Jacq?" asked Tintin.

"Oh my goodness…"

"What is it, las?" asked Haddock.

"This cupcake has cream inside of it!" She said showing her half eaten cupcake with white soft cream inside. "THAT'S SUCH A GREAT IDEA!" She proceeded to gobble the rest of the cupcake. She said with the mouth full, "BEST! CUPCAKES! EVER!" Tintin and Haddock gave an uneasy look at her. Then after she finished her cupcake, she said, "Anyway, Tintin, I'm on the same page. We should ask Mr. Maroon about what he knows about his." As she went downstairs and ate another cupcake, Haddock said to Tintin, "Make sure she doesn't eat too many."

They went to call Mr. Bucks and let him know that they discovered something important, but that he'd have to wait until tomorrow. "Please be patient, Mr. Bucks. We'll let you know as soon as we arrive," said Jacq on the phone booth. "Thank you. See ya. Good night." She hung up the phone and went out the phone booth to the men. "So… that was easy."

"We know," said Tintin and Haddock in unison.

"A bit too easy, in my book," said Snowy.

But just as the group walked back, someone hid in the shadow spying on them from afar.

**A/N Part 2** Who could be the figure spying on the group? Who could've been the one behind all this? And why?

Sorry it took so long! I had to finish lots of essays for university. Sadly, because I had little time to finish this chapter, I couldn't make the chapter longer. Sorry if this chapter seems way too short. But now I need to finish some more assignments, and I'm travelling to Brazil in two weeks for a month, which means this won't be the only time I delay a chapter. So please, I beg for your patience. In the meantime, I left a hidden pattern on each chapter, except for chapters 1 and 2. Can you guess what it is?

Thank you all for supporting my fanfic, and I really love the fact you're all reading this!

With all that said, please leave a review after reading. Thank you!

Hopefully, I'll see you all very soon! In case I don't see ya, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! BYE BYE FOR NOW!


	6. Roll camera

**Chapter 6: Roll camera**

**A/N Part 1** Yeah! The adventure finally continues! Sorry it took SO LONG! I was in Brazil and Uruguay for a month and I had limited access to the Internet. I also had to re-edit a few things in this chapter before I could post this. But I had some time to write, and I managed to write the Christmas special with **luvAdventure123**. It's still in her profile if you wanna check it out: my OC, Jacq, meets her OC, Ronnie, and they spend the Christmas at Marlinspike Hall. Once again, to **luvAdventure123**, I had a blast writing this. To the ones who have read the special already, I hoped you enjoyed it. Anyway, I'm back to writing more fan fiction, so here we go!

The group soon arrived back to Jacq's apartment. Jacq had invited her friends to stay for a few minutes, because she had promised to show her apartment to Tintin. As they went up the stairs, Jacq picked out her key from her pocket while holding the cupcakes. "Alright, I'm sorry for the mess, but I'm sure that you'll like my place," she said as she went up the stairs.

Just as she opened the door, she remembered that she hadn't cleaned up her apartment in a while! Although she was a clean person, she didn't have time to think about that. "Oh geesh! Guys, can you wait for about a minute?" She took a quick peek at her apartment before she entered. "Oh boy!" She quickly entered her apartment without allowing them to see the mess she had made. Everywhere was dirty clothes, and papers which she had worked on previous drafts of her scripts. It looked stuffy in there. "Holy guacamole… One second!" she shouted across the door. She left the cupcakes in the kitchen and went to tidy up everything.

All the men could hear was noises of a person walking around the room. After exactly two minutes, she opened the door and said, "Good. Please come in."

They entered to see a small, yet neat apartment. She had recently turned on scented candles. "Oh wow," said Tintin. "What a lovely apartment."

"Thanks," said Jacq. "I'll show you around. But please, just don't open that door over there." She pointed at a small storage closet that looked like it was about to burst.

Snowy thought, "She should put a sign there saying that it's not safe."

After quickly showing her living room and kitchen, they entered her bedroom. There was a single bed with pink sheets, a multi-colored cover and small cushion that looked like she bought it from Morocco. Her closet was on the side of the door which led to her bathroom. She left the door closed, because she didn't allow them to see the mess she had made.

On the other side of the room was a desk and a light-blue typewriter for her to work on. Over the desk was the newspaper about them in their adventure of helping Princess Alexandra. "What an adorable figurine," said the Captain pointing to a small porcelain penguin next to the typewriter. It was about the size of a palm. "Yeah, thanks. I had that figurine a long time ago when my-" Then she stopped herself. She stopped smiling. Something seemed to be disturbing her.

"Las, what's wrong?" asked the Captain.

"No, it's nothing."

Tintin said, "Jacq, I don't mean to offend you, but you've been acting a bit strangely lately. Is there something wrong?"

"I..." Then the phone rang. "I'll get it!" said Jacq, trying to change the subject. She picked up the phone and started talking. Although she had just told him yesterday that she had trouble talking to people, Tintin felt that there was something else she didn't tell him. Was it about the scripts she wrote?

"Yeah. That'd be nice. Hang on. I'll ask them." Jacq held the receiver on her chest and asked the men. "Guys, it's Sally South. She's having a party with a bunch of friends in a hotel to hide from the paparazzi."

"Do you know these people?" asked Tintin.

"Yeah. I worked with them before. Leo, Chris, Nicky, Andy, all of them are great. They're asking whether we'd like to hang out with them right now. It's a few blocks away. We could just wear casual clothes and bring some snacks. Nothing too fancy."

The Captain and Tintin thought about it and they agreed. "Aye," said the Captain, "That'd be fun."

"Sweet. I'll tell her." Jacq held up the phone to tell them. "Sure. We'll be there. Ok then. Bye."

Xxx

They arrived at the hotel around nine-thirty. The hotel was a large building of 12 floors with bright lights, and had a small fountain at the front. Jacq, leaving the tonic water bottles on the floor, was talking to the receptionist while Tintin carried some ginger ale bottles and the Captain carried some beer cans for the guests. "I'm sure these guys will like the drinks we bought them," said the Captain.

"You didn't buy all those for yourself?" asked Tintin mockingly.

"Ha ha. Very funny, Tintin," said the Captain.

Jacq turned around and said, "Top floor." She then whispered, "Sally came in disguise, so nobody knows that she's here." She carried the tonic water and they took the elevator and waited to meet the guys with Sally.

They waited in a fairly big elevator with red walls, golden details and a bright light on the side of the wall. "So, Jacq," asked the Captain, "Did you work with these other people? Are they close friends?"

"Oh, we were dancing for a movie shoot. We needed a bunch of dancers for a movie scene, and they played about half of the tap dancers. They're dancers and they travel a lot. But I don't get to talk to them a lot, because they're always busy for different shows all over the country."

Then the elevator opened, revealing a white door with the number 1201. It opened and they found a young lady with short blonde hair opening the door. "Hi Jacq!"

"Hey! How's it going?" Jacq said hugging her. "Come on, guys. I'll show you to them." she said to Tintin, Haddock and Snowy. The girl grabbed the tonic water off Jacq and they entered the room seeing Sally South, who was wearing a short, blonde wig, with a bunch of beautiful ladies. They all had their hair blonde, with different hairstyles, and all long and skinny legs, except for one girl who had shorter legs and was the youngest of the group. Tintin and Haddock looked at each other in surprise. "Jacq," asked Tintin. "Didn't you say that they were-?"

"So," said Jacq not listening, "I want you to meet the dancers _The Tapping Sisters_." Each lady lined up in a line to introduce each other and greet Tintin and Haddock. Jacq said, "So this one here is Leonarda. She's the leader of the group."

"Please, call me Leo." She said as she shook their hands.

"Next is Christina."

"Nice to meet you. Call me Chris."

"Then we have Andrea."

"My friends call me Andy."

"This is Nicole."

"Call me Nicky."

"Samantha."

"Call me Sam."

"Wilma."

"Call me Wil."

"Joanne."

"Call me Jo."

"Antonia."

"Call me Toni."

"And then we have-"

"Call me Jim!" said the youngest girl with a high-pitched voice. "Ooo! Are those drinks for us?" They took the drinks away from the men as they passed it on to each other. Then Tintin asked the Captain, "Is it me, or does this company just so happen to hire women whose names turn into male names?"

Snowy said as he was being caressed by the lovely ladies on top of the big bed, "I don't know, but all I can say is I LOVE Hollywood!"

The women had pulled up chairs and couches for them to sit down. They took some drinks and ate some snacks they had ordered from room service. Some of the girls had asked for a cola from the room service, but some got the drinks that the group brought in. Jacq took tonic water and Tintin took a ginger ale. The Captain, feeling a bit guilty, decided to drink ginger ale this time.

The girls talked about how they managed to become famous with the studio. Toni continued, "So they needed to have women for a film shoot where Sally was starring at. Remember _Dancing like a Star_? It was the story about a woman who wanted to be a star. Simple enough story."

"But they didn't have enough female tap dancers," said Wil who finished drinking her beer. "So they hired us, and we made up part of the choreography. The rest is history. We're traveling all over the country and dancing in a tour."

"That's fantastic," said Tintin.

Jacq said, "They didn't know me at the time, but I was dancing along with them. And then I found out much later when Sally told me."

"Right now we came back to shoot another movie," said Leo who was drinking tonic water. "A musical. But we don't know whether it'll be cancelled because of the threat on the studio."

"I know," said Sally. "I had to keep on escaping from the press. I even wore a wig to hide myself. And that's when I had the idea to invite the girls here for a small party and make it seem like I was part of the group. If anybody wants to, they can sleep over here."

"Ooo!" said Jim with a high-pitched voice. "You're investigating the case, are you?" she asked Jacq, Tintin and Haddock. "Can you tell us what you found out? Is the film studio really in danger? Do you know who's behind this?"

All of the women looked attentively at them. "Um... we did find out something," said Tintin. "But I think it's best we kept it for ourselves." All of the girls whined in disappointment. "Sorry. We're still not 100 per cent certain about anything."

"So is it somethin' else?" asked Sally.

"No, we don't think the studio's being threatened," said Jacq.

"Oh. Because I don't want to be one of the ones who quits their job," said Jim. "_Vermont_'s a special place for all of us. That's where we boosted our careers."

"Quit your... wait, what do you mean by that?" asked Tintin. They hadn't told them that the stunt actors of _The Gorilla Movie_ had quit their jobs.

Leo continued, "Yeah, there have been actors, dancers and other crew members quitting their jobs. They never did explain why, but I think they're scared of the threat that happened yesterday. But just because someone destroyed some movie reels doesn't mean that I'd quit dancing."

"When did they quit their jobs?"

"Oh, I think this afternoon or something," said Sam.

"Yeah. Most of them sent them by letters," said Nicky.

Jacq thought, "So the actors from _The Gorilla Movie_ weren't the only ones." She then asked, "Did any of you ask them what happened? Why they quit?"

"No. Nobody said anythin'," said Sally. "Actually, one of my friends, Jesse, he didn't quit, but one of his friends did. He tried to ask'm somethin', but his friend didn't seem to trust nobody and ran away."

"Crumbs," thought Tintin. "This isn't as easy as I thought. The studio closes at midnight. I still have some time." He stood up and excused himself. "I'm sorry, ladies, but I'm going to have to go."

"What?" the girls said disappointed again.

"I know we said we'd talk to Mr. Bucks the next morning, but I need to ask him a few questions right now."

"Hey," said Jacq. "Don't forget about me, won't you? I'm coming too."

Tintin smiled, "Yes, I remember what you said. Captain, are you coming as well?"

The Captain thought about it. For one thing, he wanted to rest in Hollywood and not be involved in any more crazy adventures since his last one. And now he was in a hotel room surrounded by beautiful women AND the famous Sally South. Tintin saw his sad-puppy expression. "Alright, alright. You can stay." Haddock squealed in happiness. "Snowy seems to enjoy himself too, so he can stay too. Take care, ladies. We'll see you soon."

"Bye!" they all said, and Haddock waved his hand as if he were a happy little girl.

"Bye, Jacq. Bye, Tintin," said Sally.

Tintin and Jacq went inside the elevator and after the doors closed, Jacq said, "Good thing you let the Captain enjoy himself."

"I know. After all, he's in Hollywood."

They waited silently in the elevator. Tintin looked at Jacq. Jacq noticed him and asked with her sweet smile, "Yeah?"

"Oh... I just... Jacq? Have you been fine lately? I... I don't want you to think that I'm assuming..." He coughed. "Are you...?" He didn't want her to think that she was troubled or had a problem. He remembered how sad she looked lately, including today. But he kept hesitating, as he didn't know what was the best way to approach the subject. "Look... if there's any problem... no, I mean... and, I just... If there's anything you want to tell me, then tell me. I'll be there when you need me."

Jacq's eyes widened. Now that she thought about it, she wanted to tell him so many things, but had keeping it all to herself this whole time. "Actually, yeah... I wanted to tell you something important..." Now didn't feel like the right time to tell him anything, but she had an urge deep inside of her. She began to get near him like a magnet slowly pulling her.

"Yes?" He asked with eyes widened. Tintin began to sweat as he stared at her soft face and felt her breathing.

Then the elevator opened. Jacq sighed, "... But I'll tell you later. Now's not the time." She walked out.

He immediately followed. "... Jacq, are you sure? We can talk while we go to the studio."

"No, not right now."

"Is it about the script?"

"Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. I don't know. I'll ask Mr. Bucks tonight if he finished reading my script. That's probably it." Jacq started to walk faster and faster like she was trying to escape the conversation. She looked annoyed. Tintin now felt a bit guilty that he asked her anything.

They soon arrived at the studio and luckily Mr. Bucks was in his office again. Tintin knocked on his door and asked to come in. "Not now, whoever it is," he said. He started to sound a bit like the Captain. They opened the door and saw his room a bit untidier than usual. Mr. Bucks leaned against the window as he started outside.

"Mr. Bucks?" asked Jacq. He turned around. "Oh, hi kid. Wasn't I supposed to talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We were, but something came up that we need to ask you. Mr. Bucks, do you know why so many people are quitting their jobs today?"

"No, I don't know! I've been receiving all of these letters, I've been losing people and I can't talk to anyone right now! I've been having to cancel two big films today." He sat down on his desk and leaning his hands on his head. "Everybody's been askin' me all day long! Everybody's been gossipin' here and there! I feel like a buffoon right now!"

Tintin continued, "So there's no one who holds a gudge against you or anyone else?"

"Huh? Oh no, nobody. "If anything, Mr. Maroon might have one."

"Mr. Maroon? What do you mean?" asked Tintin. The two looked at each other briefly.

Mr. Bucks stood up. "You said something about Mr. Maroon before on the phone, so I thought about it. I couldn't think of anyone who might be against him. All I could think about was that he was a gambler before. Or at least spent most of his time in a casino, so most likely gamblin'. Maybe he owes money or somethin'. I don't know. I didn't ask'm." He said drinking a bit more of his whisky. He must have been tipsy by that point. "I don't even know which casino it was. It was a rumor flying around a long time ago." Jacq hadn't heard of any rumor before, as she wasn't the kind who spent much time with other people in the film studio, so she didn't know about it.

Tintin and Jacq gave each other the same look again. Looks like there was some kind of connection with _The Gorilla Movie_. "But if it's just Mr. Maroon, why attack the entire studio itself?" asked Jacq.

"I don't know, but so far it's our lead," said Tintin. "Thanks, Mr. Bucks."

"Oh, and one last thing before you go. Jacq," he said to her. "I read your script."

"Yeah? You did?" she said anticipating the answer.

"Sure. It stinks!" he said with a bit of a drunken voice. Jacq's smile faded. "Sorry, but I read the whole thing from beginning to end. You did fix up a lot of mistakes here and there compared to your previous scripts, but this one just became BORING. It's a generic crime drama with a lame and repetitive premise, the story is dull, the plot is slow, the characters are atrocious and on top of that," he said holding up the first page of the script and pointing at the title. "You wrote here that it was written by Jacqueline Jones... and a talking-penguin."

Jacq remembered her penguin figurine on her desk. "Oh yeah..." she said in a lower voice. "I was half-asleep when I wrote that."

"I could tell!" he said and he slammed the script on his desk. "Now, if you wanna continue writing, that's fine with me. But seein' the fact that you ain't improvin' too much, and that the studio ain't doin' so well anyway, I don't see the point. Now, if you'll excuse me-" he slammed his head on the papers on his desk and fell asleep.

Tintin looked at Jacq. She had disappointment written all over her face. She left the office in a fast pace. "Jacq!" he said catching up to her. She was faster than he imagined and had to sprint a bit to catch up with her. They were finally outside the building and Jacq was still moving fast. "Jacq, please! I know you're upset, but he was a bit drunk. That wasn't him talking." She stopped walking. Tintin stopped and stood behind her. "Listen, he's upset too, so he just said those things in a bad mood. The Captain acts that way too many times."

Jacq turned around and looked at Tintin. Her eyes started to become wet. "You don't understand... I tried. I really REALLY tried. I've been working so hard and this is still the best I can do." She covered her face in shame and began to cry.

Tintin slowly went to her and hugged her. "There... it's not so bad."

"It is so bad..." She then put her arms around Tintin tightly, like she didn't want him to leave just yet. After about a minute, she was still crying. A few actors and crew members took a glance at them when they walked by. Tintin didn't know how long this would last. "So... do you want me to take you home now? Or do you want to go for an ice cream?" Then he thought, "An ice cream? What am I thinking? She isn't five."

"My parents were right," Jacq said. "This was all for naught." Tintin noticed what she had said. "Your parents? Why would they say that?"

She let go of him and they started to walk towards the exit. "It was a few months ago..." Jacq said. She felt a great pain in her gut as she recalled that memory.

_A few months ago..._

Jacq heard a knock on the door in her apartment. "That must be mom and dad," she thought in anticipation. "I'm coming!" she said. She opened the door to greet her parents.

After a warm welcome, and offering a coffee to her dad, her mother Diana spoke. "So, Jacq. How did your next script go?"

"Well..." Jacq said as she sat down on her couch. "Not so well. There was some trouble with the story and stuff. The humor especially felt a bit flat, and that's not a good thing for a comedy. BUT I will do better. I'm writing another one. I'm giving westerns a shot." She said with an enthusiastic smile.

Diana and Martin looked at each other. It seemed like they were recalling a previous conversation they had. "Honey," said Diana in a serious tone. "I want to ask you something. Do you feel like you're progressing? Like you're going anywhere?"

"... What do you mean?" she asked.

"We talked to Mr. Bucks earlier as well. He told us you were doing a good job, but that..."

"That what, Mom?" Now Jacq's smile was beginning to fade. This wasn't starting to sound like them at all for some strange reason. Something inside of her told her that.

Martin said to his daughter the most polite way as possible, "We've been thinking about it as well. We thought that you're exhausting yourself a bit too much. You should probably take a break for a while. Maybe with us-"

"That's not what we agreed on, Martin," said Diana in an authoritarian voice. She turned to her daughter. "Jacqueline, do you think you're doing well in this job?"

"What is this about? If you want to know, I... have improved a bit," said Jacq trying to show confidence. "But you know that I need to learn a bit more about film if I want to progress a bit more. I've had experience in creative writing. All I need is a bit of knowledge in the film production."

"I don't see it," said Diana. Jacq felt something breaking inside of her as she heard those words come out of her mother. "... What?" she asked with a broken voice.

"Face it, Jacqueline. You've been here for a few months and you haven't been going anywhere. We thought about it, and as your parents, we believe that you should just give it up."

Jacq stood there in shock. Her parents, the most supportive people in her life, were telling her to give up her dream. "I... Mom... What are you trying to imply? That everything I'm doing is nothing? Pointless? That I'm going nowhere? That my dream is nothing?" Martin tried to stop Jacq from continuing to speak fast. "Jacq, I don't want you to take this the wrong way. You're a talented young girl and we want you to succeed in life. We think it's much better for you to take acting. You said you like acting now, so why not just do that?"

"Dad, I've told you over and over again that I felt like I wanted to do stories on the big screen. My whole life I told you I was meant for that. I wrote stories as a kid that I imagined would become big movies. I love acting too now, but if I'm going to act, I'll act in my own movies first."

Diana started to raise her voice. "Then why did you wait until now for you to get experience? Why didn't you take film lessons before?"

Jacq began to feel more defensive. She never imagined the day when she had to argue with her parents. "I told you! I wasn't confident before! It wasn't until I met Tintin that I felt inspired to go further."

"You think that just because you save a country that'll make you a filmmaker?" Diana sounded like she was mocking her own daughter.

Jacq started to become even more offended and angry. She said with clenched fists, "To me, YES. It's about enough determination and enough passion. That's what you guys told me."

"Well, there's something else. It's called talent."

Those words hit Jacq hard like a rock thrown at her. Jacq started to breathe heavily. Martin saw her daughter hurt. "Jacq," he said, "I don't think your mother said it the most polite way, but she has a point. You have to recognize what you can and can't do. All I want is the best for you."

Jacq stopped breathing heavily and put on the most serious face she has ever had. She stood up and went to the door. "Jacqueline," said her father. Jacq opened the door and begged her parents to leave. "I want you to leave me now."

"Jaqueline Marie Jones. Stop acting like a child," said her mother. Jacq crossed her arms. "Did you hear me the first time? You're acting immature."

"I said get out. Now." Her parents tried to get near her. Jacq turned around and said with a cold voice, "Just LEAVE. Leave me alone. I don't even want to look at you." She didn't hear her parents say anything else. All she heard was a short pause, and her parents walking out and closing the door.

This was her first real argument with her parents. Jacq went to her bedroom and it took her a while for her to let out her emotions. After a few minutes, as she lied down on her bed, she finally burst into tears.

_Present..._

"I said a horrible thing to them, Tintin. That I didn't want to look at them." They were on the park sitting on a bench and she had finished explaining the whole story. Tintin was listening attentively to Jacq as she leaned on him. The quarter-moon was shining over them and from afar, the park looked like it was almost black. They could see a few people walking across the park, but other than that, the park looked a bit empty.

"But it wasn't your fault you reacted that way," said Tintin rubbing her on the shoulder. "You were angry. They said something that offended you."

"I have never felt so angry and sad in my entire life. Especially with my parents." She looked at Tintin. "But what if I was up in a stupid dream and they were just trying to be realistic? They do these things because they love me. So what if they were right this entire time? What if I have no talent in writing?"

"I don't think so. You said it yesterday, didn't you? That you could write stories before? Maybe there's something missing."

"Like what?"

"Umm… Some inspiration, maybe. I don't know. You might have to figure that out."

Jacq stood up and reflected it. "I guess. I haven't felt like myself a lot lately. Only until you and the others visited me that I really felt happy." Tintin immediately remembered the phone call she had given him a long time ago. He knew the feeling exactly like she did.

"Yeah, I'm glad we came to visit." He said holding her hand. "I'm very happy when I'm with you too. It's alright when I'm with the Captain and Snowy and the Professor, but it's different, because... hang on..." Suddenly, both had realized the exact same thing.

They gasped and said in unison, "THE PROFESSOR!" They had forgotten him in the film studio!

**A/N Part 2** Yeah, I forgot about the Professor too! XD

But don't worry. He'll play an important part in the story.

Poor Jacq... Actually, the scene where she says, "I've been working so hard and this is still the best I can do," I'm referencing the episode of _The Simpsons_ "Bart gets an F" where he fails the test after so much hard work and says the exact same thing. That's one of the things that makes Jacq so relatable, in my opinion. The desire to succeed and the sad thought of not progressing. Like you work so hard, and soon you say to yourself "It's no use. No matter how hard I try, I can't do it." Also it kinda reminds me of _Kiki's Delivery Service_ in a way. You gotta watch the movie to know what I mean.

I LOVE the gag in which all the women, including Jacq, have nicknames that sound like male names. In fact, that's the actual reason why I called my OC Jacq. For some strange reason, even though I like feminine names, I like female names that can turn into male names. That includes something like Alex for Alexandra.

And I LOVE tonic water. That's another thing Jacq and I have in common. During the vacations, I've been drinking a lot of tonic water, and in Brazil I've had delicious foods, including lots of juices and fruits. Anyway, looking really forward to write Chapter 7!


	7. Marker

**Chapter 7: Marker**

Tintin used the phone booth to call the hotel receptionist to find out if the Professor had returned to the room. He found out that no one had returned to the hotel, so him and Jacq ran back to _Vermont_ to find out if the Professor was still there.

They searched around in the studio asking the guards if they spotted anyone like the Professor walking around. Soon they were told where he might have seen him: the visual effects department. They walked through the special props, ramps, puppets, small-scale models, costumes of robots and monsters, and other interesting items that they needed to use for the visual effects. Tintin was looking around almost distracted by the wonders that this place had. He never imagined there was so much behind the camera. No wonder Jacq loved film. They reached the door through the other side of the room and arrived to find the Professor with Tulio. Inside were machinery to construct the visual effects, and next to the big table the men were working on a mechanical giant gorilla hand, which wasn't finished yet. It was most likely going to be used for Mr. Maroon's movie, but because of the budget cuts it was never used.

"Professor," said Tintin. "There you are! I'm so sorry! We forgot about you!"

"Oh hello, Tintin," said the Professor not hearing him. He was holding some button which allowed the gorilla hand to open and close. "Sorry I couldn't tell you earlier, but I couldn't find you. I was with Tulio. He was teaching me about the marvels of the cinematic world.

Tulio put down a paper with the diagrams of the hand. "I found him wondering around nearby, and I asked him whether he'd like to take a look at these things."

Then the Professor asked Tintin and Jacq to put on some goggles before he took out a special button which looked like a detonator connected to a core. The core was connected to a box with an item which looked like a small dynamite. "Look. Tulio told me what a squid was." They took a few steps back. He pushed the button and a small explosion came out. "A squib," said Tulio correcting the Professor.

Bang!

A small cloud of smoke came out of the box. They all took off their goggles and Tulio explained to Tintin, "It's almost like a firecracker. We use those for small explosions on set. We're trying to convince the studio to use the firecrackers to simulate bullet impacts on people. The only problem is that censorship won't allow us to use them, because they fear they'll be too realistic on screen."

"Well, maybe some day we'll see it," said Jacq. "Anyway, thanks for finding the Professor, Tulio. We completely forgot that the Professor was still here."

"De nada, Jacq," he put down his goggles on the table and then noticed her puffy eyes. "Ey, are you ok? You look like you were crying."

"Oh, me? Nah. It's… my script got rejected."

"Ah, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, that's ok. I've been rejected so many times I'm used to it," she lied. "So what were you doing here so late?"

"I was helping out the others move out some of the mechanics back into the workshop. Some of the crewmembers quit, and some filmmakers are refusing to continue the filming schedules. Have you heard about people unexpectedly quitting?"

"Yeah, we heard about it just recently," said Tintin. "Do you know anything else about it?"

"Mmm… not much I can say."

"Oh! I almost forgot!" said the Professor. He took out something out of his pocket and said, "Tintin. My pendulum was acting rather weird today. I went around the studio and found something." He put them on Tintin's hand. It was a poker chip, and it had in black bold letters "Pyramid Hotel and Casino".

"A poker chip," said Jacq. "So there is a link to Mr. Maroon and a casino!"

Tulio suggested, "Of course! There were rumors that gangsters were involved in the casino somehow, but that could have just been made-up. It could have come from a movie. So is Mr. Maroon in some trouble with the gangsters? Maybe owes him money?"

Tintin said, "There's only one way to find out ourselves."

Tintin and Jacq went off to the casino to investigate. Tulio had to stay behind for the visual effects department. The Professor stayed with Tulio to help him put the items back, and told Tintin and Jacq that he'd return to the hotel to get some sleep. However, he was noticing that his pendulum was still acting strange, and decided to look around after he was done assisting Tulio.

Tintin and Jacq passed through the nightlife of the Hollywood streets. Everywhere were tourists, and people who dressed up like movie stars. Tintin wondered why Jacq wouldn't speak to these people. After all, they seemed as lively as she did.

They arrived at a luxurious looking hotel with a giant glass pyramid on the top, and a large fountain in the front. They entered, showing their IDs to prove they were old enough to enter. In the reception, Tintin asked a tall man, "Excuse me, do you know if Mr. Maroon happens to go to this casino."

"Mr. Maroon. Doesn't ring a bell. Let me check…" he took out a book of a membership club and read over the pages. "Ah! Here it is. Curtis Maroon." The man turned the book to show the name and picture. "That's him," said Jacq. "Hang on…" she read the date. "It's expired?"

"Yes, he hasn't been here for about a year or two," said the man. "Can't remember when's the last time he came."

Tintin asked, "So, do you know if there are any gangsters in here?"

"Me? Eh..." He went closer to the two and whispered. "I'd rather not talk about it. People spread out rumours here, and anything I say will ruin the reputation of this casino."

"I see," said Tintin understanding. Jacq noticed the receptionist's expression, and it didn't seem like he was lying. If anything, he was a bit unsure of the truth himself. Maybe gangsters were using the casino as a hideout, but some people didn't know about it.

Suddenly, as luck would have it, they spotted Mr. Maroon across the other side. "Hey, it's him," said Jacq.

"Mr. Maroon!" said the man grabbing his attention. Mr. Maroon turned around. He had a worried expression on his face. He noticed Tintin and Jacq and tried to ignore them. But the two reached him before he could escape. "Wait! Mr. Maroon!" said Jacq.

"I swear to God," said Mr. Maroon, "I have nothing to do with this!"

"It's alright, Sir," said Tintin. "We just want to ask questions."

"Really? I thought… I thought…. that you were going to put my picture on the front cover of the magazine… and expose me as a gambling addict. After all, you're a reporter, aren't you?" Jacq noticed that something about what he just said felt like a lie. It seemed like he was making that up.

"I am a reporter, but I'm not here for a story this time," said Tintin.

"Well, just in case, I am glad to say that it's been two and a half years since I last gambled. Those days are over… now unfortunately I'm addicted to chocolate. Gained a few pounds lately."

As they went to the hallway nearby, a more silent place, Jacq asked, "Tell us, do you know anything about who might have done those threats in _Vermont_?"

"I-I-… I know nothing about that stuff."

Tintin pulled out his poker chip, "Sir, we found this in the film studio. We don't know whether it's yours or how much it's worth-"

"Where did you get this?"

"Actually, our friend found it with a pendulum," said Jacq. "I don't know exactly how it works, but it did."

He grabbed the poker chip and said, "Look! Both of you! Get out of here while you still can. I have to go now. I can't be here." He tried to run away, but then Jacq stopped him. "Wait, what do you mean? Tell us."

"If you want to live, then you don't want to be involved. It's much better if you're seen without me," he continued to run. The two tried to follow him, but after they came out of the hallway, they noticed an emergency exit sign that was closing. They reached the door, but by the time they checked the exit, he was gone.

"Crumbs," said Tintin. "We lost him. But at least we know that there's something going on." They closed the door and entered the casino. Then Jacq had a strange feeling. "Hey, Tintin," sad Jacq, "Don't you get the feeling that we're being watched?"

"You have no idea."

While Jacq kept an eye to anyone who looked suspicious, they asked the receptionist again whether the owner of the hotel and casino was here, but it seemed like he was travelling at the moment. And they asked a few workers in the hotel about any signs of suspicion in the Pyramid. However, they were asked to leave, because they were being a bit too nosy. Now there was no point by this point to ask anyone else. Tintin and Jacq agreed that the next morning they'd go to the police station and find out more about links with the casino. Right now was half 'til midnight and the station was closed. Tintin and Jacq went with her to pick up the Captain and Snowy.

To their surprise, when they arrived at Sally's hotel room, they saw Snowy covered in pink ribbons, including one on his tail, and the Captain covered in make-up.

"Blistering Blue Barnacles!" said the Captain standing next to the bathroom. He probably had just woken up and seen his face. Tintin and Jacq just laughed at the sight of both of them.

Snowy said, "This is very bad for my reputation."

Leo said, "He fell asleep from all the ginger ale that he drank, and we decided to give him a little makeover."

"It suits him so well!" said Jim laughing along.

The Captain went in the bathroom and washed his face. "Thundering Typhoons! The eye make-up won't come off!"

"Come on, Captain," said Tintin trying to cheer him up. "It's not so bad. It isn't the first time we were dressed up as women. It's not even my first time." Jacq remembered him telling her about a few instances when he disguised himself to save his life. Jacq continued, "Yeah! Don't feel bad. If it'll make you feel better, I dressed up as a guy once!" Everyone bursted out laughing.

Then the Captain came off, still with mascara on his eyes, and a bit of eyeliner underneath. Sally said, "He looks like a raccoon now!" Everyone laughed even harder, and even one of the girls fell off her chair and rolled on the floor laughing.

After being able to breathe again, and the Captain managing to take off most of the eyeliner and mascara, leaving him with feminine eyes, Jacq said, "Oh yeah! This definitely made me feel much better!"

"What do ya mean much better?" asked Sally still trying to take a breath. Jacq had to be honest and tell the girls about what happened with her script. The girls' expressions changed into worry. "Yeah, it got rejected again," said Jacq. "But it's really no big deal. I just have to forget about that now, and I'll work on my next project."

Then Sally asked, "Hey, sugar cube? Why not stay over tonight?" Jacq's eyes widened. "And don't worry about bringin' a pajama. I can lend ya one, or ya can sleep with anythin' ya feel comfortable in." All the girls agreed with Sally.

"That's a great idea!"

"We're planning to say up till late."

"It'll be so much fun!"

"Yeah! We can do your make-up and do your manicure and pedicure and talk all night!" said Andy who was talking almost as fast as Jacq, but could never reach her speed.

Jacq started to cheer up. "Well, I think I'd have some fun. Sure, what the heck?" All the girls cheered.

But right now the two men were tired, so they decided to leave now. Before they went to the elevator, Snowy started barking. He was obviously objecting to the pink ribbons, but the Captain asked Tintin not to do so until much later. The Captain wanted his self-esteem back. "Yeah," said Tintin, "Snowy does look adorable. He should keep that look for a while."

The girls said their goodbyes to the men, and Snowy followed them to the elevator with an extremely annoyed look on his face.

Xxx

The Captain was having a hard night in the hotel bedroom. When he walked back to the hotel, men who passed by were giving him a funny look. He had to keep telling people across the street, and as he walked into the hotel, that he didn't put make-up on purpose. The eye make-up was still a bit present on his eyes. He kept staring at Snowy. "Blistering Barnacles, even looking at Snowy can't make me feel better about myself. I have girly eyes!"

Snowy thought, "How about if I bite-off those eyes of yours then? It'll make everyone feel better."

The Captain looked at Tintin who was standing outside the balcony of the hotel. He was gazing at the stars a bit. "And what are you still doing outside?" said Haddock. "Get back in here. I want to get some sleep now!"

"I'm sorry, Captain," said Tintin with a bit of a distracted look. "I was just a bit concerned."

"Don't worry," said the Captain sarcastically. "You'll be able to think all day about your precious case."

"Huh? Oh right…" said Tintin. The Captain realized what had happened. The Captain asked, "You weren't thinking about the case at all, weren't you?"

"Not really?"

"How come you're always thinking about Jacqueline?"

"How did you know I was thinking about her?" asked Tintin.

"Sometimes you can be so predictable, laddie." The Captain sat down on his bed. He took off his hat and left it on the side table. Tintin sat down on the bed adjacent to the Captain's. "So you're worried about Jacq? About her script getting rejected?" he took out a pipe for him to smoke in.

"That's not all I'm worried about. She told me about what happened with her parents. They had a fight a few months ago and she hasn't seen them since. She was going through a lot of pressure at the time. It must have been why she spoke less to us."

"That's no good. But wouldn't Jacq need someone to talk to if she were under stress?" he asked lighting his pipe.

"I think so, but some people want to prove that they're independent and don't need help." Tintin remembered back to the conversation that he had once with her. He remembered her words, "…_Maybe I have to get used to doing things on my own. I can't rely on others to do things for me. No matter how difficult the situation. If not, I won't be able to achieve my dream..._" It seemed like a logical reason. "Either way," Tintin continued, "I want to be there for her. Even when she's helping me solve the mystery behind the threats in the studio."

"Hehe," said the Captain as he was puffing his pipe. "Looks like I don't have to follow you on your adventures anymore. As much fun as I have with you, I'm much too old. You have someone else around your age to be with. And she doesn't seem to mind when you… Tintin?" he noticed Tintin dazed off again. "Huh?" Tintin came back to the room. "Sorry, I was thinking about Jacq."

"… Tintin," asked Haddock. "Are you in love with Jacq?" Tintin gave a similar reaction to Jacq when the Captain had told her something very similar. Tintin looked both surprised and confused. The Captain didn't want to imply that Jacq loved Tintin, but it wouldn't hurt to ask Tintin if he loved Jacq.

"In love? Well… I-... um... just..." He started to hesitate and stutter his sentences. "I-I don't think I should even talk about it with you. You said you don't know anything about love, right."

"Oh, it doesn't matter. I'm still your friend, and I want to listen."

"What even makes you say it's love I'm feeling right now?"

"If I had to think… You complement her more than you're usually supposed to, you think about her even when you're on a date with someone else, you become distracted when you're thinking about her, you got excited when you were danced with her once, and when you were going to visit her. Even right now I still see you excited." Tintin realized it and looked down at his hands. They were shaking and they were sweating. Almost like he was both cold and hot at the same time. The Captain continued, "I'm not saying that you are in love. These are just signs I noticed. Maybe it's all too fast," he repeated what Jacq had told him once.

"I… I don't know. Is that what I've been really feeling this whole time?" He remembered back to his date with Miss Martine. He did think about Jacq the rest of the night. Was it because he wanted to have a date with her instead?

"You don't need to answer me now," said the Captain. He didn't touch his pipe for a while.

"Well… you're right. Now's not the time to answer these questions. We have to solve a mystery right now. I shouldn't be thinking about any of this, just as Jacq shouldn't be worrying too much about her next script." Tintin stood up and grabbed his pajamas. He spoke rapidly, but still not as fast as Jacq could talk. "I'll leave that all for later. Right now the priority is _Vermont Studios_. I can't allow myself to be distracted." He went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and change into his pajamas. The Captain hoped he didn't say anything wrong, or that Tintin was in some sort of denial.

But then Tintin said before shutting the bathroom door, "Although I do really like Jacq. She's a great person, and a great friend. There was never any doubt about that." The Captain smiled at Tintin's last comment and continued to puff his pipe.

Then the Professor came back. "Cuthbert, where have you been? It's past midnight!" said the Captain.

"Oh, you're still awake," said the Professor. "Sorry I'm late. I wanted to investigate something else my pendulum spotted, but I was forced to leave. They were closing the studio, and I couldn't continue, especially since it was dark. But Tulio allowed me to find out more the next morning."

"Alright. Just don't do that again. I want to go to sleep early. I had enough things to worry about today and I'm extremely stressed."

Then the Professor noticed his face. "Why Captain, you have beautiful eyes."

"I'm giving you a chance to take that back," said the Captain.

"And… my goodness!" he said turning around and noticing the dog covered in ribbons. "I didn't know Snowy was a girl this whole time!"

Snowy barked at the Captain, begging him to take off the pink ribbons. The Captain said, "Shut up. You like it."

Xxx

As the night progressed, the girls were doing each other's manicures, and girls were doing Jacq's hair into waves, and some girls were putting on Jacq's make-up on. She started to look more beautiful as they worked on her face. Later, the girls decided to gossip about each other, including asking Jacq what she might have discovered. Jacq didn't mention Mr. Maroon or the casino. She didn't want to risk the chance of a rumor spreading out, especially with girls who loved to gossip.

Later at night, with Jacq's hair now looking like a movie star, the girls started to teach Jacq one of the dance numbers they were doing for their movie. Jacq was feeling part of a group for a long time. She had no need to worry about any deadlines or any film shoots. Right now she felt like she belonged in this group of people, just as much as she felt a part of Tintin's world. As Jacq and Sally sat down on some cushions next to the bed, Jacq thought of something. "Hey, Sally?" she asked after Sally was done talking. "Sorry to change the topic so quickly, but… do you consider me a friend?"

"Why of course I do. What makes you think I don't?"

"Well… I don't spend as much time with you as other girls. I don't go partying or gossiping with you and the other girls. That is until tonight."

"It's a different kind of friendship. Some friends spend a lot of time with each other, and some don't spend that much time, but they still keep in contact somehow. Don't let anybody make ya think there's only one way to do things."

"I guess… I feel bad that I won't spend much time with you or the _Tapping Sisters_, but hopefully I can-" Suddenly, something came to Jacq and she gasped. "Hey! I have an idea for a movie!" she said to Sally. "OH BOY! OH BOY! I can just imagine it in my head!"

"Not now, hon'," said Sally. "You can't have any script ideas worryin' ya right now. You're supposed to relax now. Have some fun, for once."

"No! Wait! You don't get it! It's a super awesome idea for a comedy!" said Jacq with a huge grin on her face. She started to speak faster and faster as she continued. "Just hear me out: We have a guy who's out of business, and he decides to form a group of dancers out of young ladies to make a profit, but ends up making a hit and starts to really like this group of girls! I can just imagine the jokes in my head! They're hilarious! And they form a friendship and a bit of struggle goes on, as they try to organize the shows—" Jacq stopped herself and gasped again. Jacq's grin was gone. She had a sudden realization. Sally hated it when Jacq's mood changed so quickly. "Holy Guacamole… I…"

"What's the matter?" asked Jo.

"Nothin'," said Sally. She stood up and brought Jacq to the kitchen and asked, "Now can you tell me?"

"I… I love movies."

"No kiddin'."

"That's not the problem. The thing is that everybody's been telling me that I was meant to act and to dance; that I had no talent in writing or in making a film. I know that a long time ago I could write, and that I truly wanted to become a filmmaker, but that there was something missing right now. While I was working on my previous scripts, they were horrible, and now I think I know why." Sally started to understand where Jacq was going with this. "Sally, I realized I do love movies. But I've been failing this whole time because I thought there was only one way to do things. It's almost like what you just told me now: there shouldn't be just one way of making a movie. I don't have to follow every step the great filmmakers do. Maybe I need to find my own way of doing things. Maybe I just need to be myself."

"… Wow. I guess that makes sense."

"But without you guys, I don't know if I'll be able to write the script properly. I need something to keep me inspired, and you'll all be too busy to spend real time with me."

"Then maybe you should find some inspiration to continue writin'."

Jacq thought about it. She closed her eyes and thought of the first thing that popped into her mind. She opened her eyes and whispered, "Tintin."

**A/N** Yeah, late again. I'm gonna have a bit of trouble continuing the fanfic because of uni, but I'll try to finish as many chapters as possible. I got a lot of writing to do, including writing my film blog and some stuff for uni. I guess the amount of time it takes me to post a chapter is compensated by the word count! I write so much each chapter!

I gave you guys a little film history by mentioning the Motion Picture Production Code. Before the U, PG, PG-13, and R ratings and stuff, there was the Production Code. It was adopted in 1930, but enforced since 1934, until the late 1960s when movies like _Bonnie and Clyde_ challenged the Code, and was eventually dropped. Ever wonder why older movies didn't have swearing or any sexual content or real blood? That's because the Code censored and controlled what they believed was appropriate and inappropriate to show on screen. Then came the New Hollywood era (1967-1975), which was probably the most influential period in American cinema history. It was a big reason why the Production Code was eventually dropped and replaced with the rating system. Go do some research on it. It's really interesting!

This was a really funny chapter! I love the whole joke of Captain Haddock with make-up, and Snowy with pink ribbons. And Calculus thinking that Snowy's a girl. After all, his name is Milou in the original language. XD

But I also wanted to continue developing the love story between Tintin and Jacq. Tintin is gradually falling in love with Jacq and realizing his feelings, while Jacq in the previous fanfic had a more instant connection with him, but similarly here it took her a while to realize what she felt.

What'll happen in the next story? When will Tintin express his emotions? What does Mr. Maroon have to hide if he's quit gambling? Does it have to do with any gangsters at the casino?

Thanks to all the readers who commented! If anything, I love your reviews! Please continue to read and review each chapter! Cya later!


	8. Action background

**Chapter 8: Action background**

**A/N Part 1** AND WE'RE BACK! Ok, I am SO SORRY everybody for taking so long! I've been on a three month hiatus for two reasons. I've been busy doing other stuff, especially finishing university stuff, travelling, my blog, etc. The other reason is I'm kinda on writer's block… I knew how one particular scene was gonna play out, but I didn't know what was gonna happen between now and that scene. So I had to fix up a few stuff so that the writing didn't feel forced.

Also, if anybody is interested, I posted a detailed description of Jacq in a Tintin Forum. Go find it and check it out if you wanna (it includes how I came up with the concept of the character and all).

Thank you all for being so very patient, and please enjoy chapter 8!

The next morning Jacq woke on the ground with all the sofa cushions and a soft blanket. She gently opened her eyes to notice the sunrise out the window. Compared to yesterday, she felt much better than she had in a while. She twisted her body, stretched herself and then flexed her arms to touch her head, where she soon realized she had very soft hair.

It took a while for Jacq to notice, but she looked around and noticed that half of the girls were sleeping. The other half, including Sally South and Leo, were probably downstairs having breakfast and didn't want to disturb them while they slept.

So Jacq went to the bathroom to fix herself up. Whether her hair had gone back curly again or her make-up ran off, Jacq felt better than ever. Looking at herself in the mirror, her eyes had stopped looking puffy from all the crying and more beautiful from the make-up that the girls had later put on her. The eyeliner had run-off a bit, but Jacq easily fixed it with some tissue paper she found next to the mirror. Her hair was still soft, say a bit messy for moving so much against her pillow. Jacq brushed her hair and took another look at herself. She looked like a movie star. However, deep inside of her she felt like the first time she saw Tintin on that cruise ship. Jacq saw her reflection grin back at herself.

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal all the girls running with newspapers, calling all the girls to wake up.

"Get up, girls!" said Toni, "You're not gonna believe this!"

Xxx

After Tintin, Haddock and Snowy, now with all the ribbons taken off, arrived at the hotel to meet up with the girls, they were about to enter the elevator. Tintin was still thinking about last night and his experience. Did he feel something for Jacq?

"Captain," he asked his friend before he could press the button for the elevator.

"What is it Tintin?" said the Captain using another tissue to take off a bit of mascara still stuck on his eyes. He had finally taken most of it off, and began to look more like himself again, and less with the pretty eyes. Tintin asked after a big silent breath of air, "Do you think I should ask Jacq on a date?"

Haddock felt himself smile inside, "Aye, so you like her?"

Tintin started to sweat and shake again. "Yes, I mean… as a friend… you said that you invite someone on a date when you like that person. But I never… well, I did go with Miss Martine, but…"

Haddock pressed the button for the elevator and looked back at his friend. "What are you waiting for? Do you like her or not? There's a chance that Jacqueline likes you too. There's one way to find out! Just ask her out, lad!" He said with enthusiasm.

"Well, I've never seen you this excited before, Captain," said Tintin. Haddock was acting as if he were reading out loud a romantic novel.

Haddock thought back to himself. "Oh… I don't know… must be a phase I'm going through."

Tintin sighed and tried to talk about Jacq again, "I don't know. I never felt like this before. Why do I feel this way for her?"

Haddock put his hand on Tintin's shoulder and gave him some advice. "It's your first time feeling like this, isn't it? I've been through the exact same thing you did when I was younger. Well… when I was young. A part of me was excited, but another part was terrified. It's completely normal for your age." Haddock began to look back at his past, and all the women he has ever fallen in love with. He continued, "I suggest you should ask her out and find out. Whether she is the one or not doesn't matter. What matters is what you feel for her right now, lad. If you don't do anything, you'll never know."

The elevator doors opened and Tintin said, "Maybe I should… but not right now, though. We're trying to solve a mystery, and it wouldn't be the appropriate time." Tintin walked up to the door. He then turned around and said, "And don't mention any of this to Jacq. It should be a surprise for her, and I don't want to let her know that we're hiding anything from her." Tintin knocked the door to find Jacq with her hair and make-up done. She looked more beautiful than ever. Tintin froze in place as he saw her.

"Tintin!" said Jacq. "Good morning. Great that you're here now! Come in!" Jacq turned around, not noticing his expression. "Hey," she turned around and saying from afar, "Are you coming, or what?"

Tintin immediately said, "WAFFLES!"

"Eh… No thanks. I already ate. Maybe next time. Come on! Did you read it in the papers? We're not sure if it's real or not. It's been all over the gossip," said Jacq quickly glancing at him and going to the room to grab the newspaper.

In his head, Tintin wanted to say that she looked "beautiful", but then he thought "cute", then "sweet" and then thought of "waffles". He was beginning to lose his mind!

Tintin rubbed his face quickly before she could read his expression. He knew that if she saw his face, she'd find out that he's hiding something from her. Keeping a serious face and his emotions in check, he walked into the room and found the girls passing the newspaper to him. He and the Captain carefully read it. Their expressions changed as they read the newspaper.

In bold capital letters, it said:

IS VERMONT STUDIOS DONE FOR? SHUTTING DOWN IN ONE MONTH.

"GREAT SNAKES!" he said. He continued to read: despite the numerous threats, people involved in the film studio had reported these threats to the police. Rumors had spread that these people demanded the studio to be shut down as soon as possible. Mr. Bucks didn't comment, but people suspect he's considering to shut down the studio.

One of the girls, Jim, kept on saying, "It's pretty serious stuff there." He tried to continue the article, but with her screaming over him he couldn't concentrate. "It's about the _Vermont_ case. There's more on the next page."

Tintin said, "I'm a journalist. I can read."

"Whoops. Sorry. Hi hi…"

They flipped to the next page and read more details. It didn't seem to say anything about who's suspected for throwing these threats. Tintin wondered whether it could have been the gangsters from that Casino. But if so, why would they want to threaten the company? And what did Mr. Maroon know about this that linked to the threats?

Tintin, Haddock, Snowy and Jacq decided to head to the police station to find out more. They ran as fast as they could to the police station and ask the victims some questions themselves.

Arriving a few minutes later, they saw some reporters waiting outside the station. Tintin said, "Crumbs. If we try to enter, they'll think we're getting a story for a newspaper. And if we try to approach the station, the reporters will try to interview us. How are we going to get some information?"

Then a familiar journalist/photographer went out of the crowd with a happy look on his face. That little journalist was the same guy who spread the story about Vermont, and the one who took the photo of them in Mr. Bucks's office. "Hallelujah!" he said to himself, "I got enough information to fill the story for tomorrow's newspaper. HA! I'll be getting my third raise this month!"

Tintin, Haddock and Jacq looked at each other with the same idea in their heads.

"YOU!" said Haddock pointing at the guy. He grabbed him by his shirt before he had any chance of escaping. "What do you know about these victims?"

"Please! Don't hurt me, Mister… is that mascara?"

Haddock pushed him against the wall, still infuriated that he still couldn't take off all of the make-up.

"We won't hurt you," said Tintin. They brought him away from the rest of the press just in case other people were to listen and get in the way. They took him behind the police station's building and began asking the guy. Tintin continued, "You were in the police station today. Please tell us everything you know about the case. Or at least anything you could figure out."

"Oh… you're that Tintin reporter! Yeah, I'm sorry about the taking the photos and all… If you want to solve a case, it doesn't matter. It's already solved."

"Answer him, you little twerp!" said the Captain. "And what do you mean the case is solved?"

"Alright! I'll start from the top. The victims were threatened in one way or another. A few of these people, about four or five of them, were blindfolded, punched and were told by someone to quit their jobs at_ Vermont _if they valued their lives. Some received the threats by post, some received it through phone calls, and some found out from each other. Still, some of them haven't quit their jobs."

Jacq put her hand over her chin like a detective and said, "Yeah. I think I get it now. These rumors might be used as a tool to spread fear among people, and that's how they get them to quit their jobs." She then asked the kid, "Any ideas who this might have been?"

"Well, one of the victims had found a poker chip from the casino: The Pyramid."

"The Pyramid?" said everyone in unison. So that clue was leading somewhere.

"Yeah. And not just that person. One of the crew members happened to find the poker chip as well and knowing about the other poker chip reproted it to the police. So police speculate that it's the Fist Mafia behind all this."

"Who are the Fist Mafia?" asked Tintin.

"The Fists are perhaps one of the biggest most powerful criminal organizations in the city, if not, THE biggest and THE most powerful. No one knows much about them, but they do know that the Fists were hiding underneath the Pyramid based on some evidence and witnesses. Even if they can't find the leader of the mafia, they know that the owner of the Pyramid is aiding them. Now the police are off to ask questions the owner of the Pyramid, and possibly even shut down the casino until they find the leader of the mafia and the rest of the members of the organization. They're gone to interrogate the owner."

"They left already?" asked Tintin.

"Well, you weren't there, but some of the cops had left behind the back so that none of the reporters could interfere. But I showed them: I was out back and pulled out information myself!"

Haddock said, "You realize you're getting arrested for pulling out confidential information."

"Not if they don't know who leaked out the story! They don't even know my name. HA!"

Tintin was giving his usual expression again: that something that the kid said which felt wrong. The police solved the case quite quickly, or at least they did… it all felt too quick and easy. But why? Maybe it was a missing piece of the puzzle. Something that was right in front of them. And why couldn't Mr. Maroon fit in to this? Tintin asked the kid, "So they concluded it was the Fist Mafia who did all this? What would they have against _Vermont_ and why would they want to do all this?"

"We don't know, but we know that they have links to various companies. One theory is that they want to get rid of one company to make another film company like MGM or RKO to grow. It's like two equally successful fruit companies: when you get rid of one competition, all the frits go to the other company. More fruits allow more trade."

Jacq asked one last thing, "And was there any mentioning of Mr. Maroon?"

"What? Nah. No mention of that director. And if you're interested, there's no direct link that I could find between the studio itself and the Fists, but for now we know it's the Fists who did this. Now let me go. That's all I could find." Haddock let him go.

Suddenly Jacq said in a flirtatious tone, "Well, geesh. I must say you're very talented to be able to pick up on that information. You must have done this for a long time." Tintin and Haddock looked at Jacq questioning her actions. Why was she acting this way?

The kid was looking at the pretty lady with the lovely face. "… Oh thanks. I have been practicing for a long time, Miss… Jacqueline, right?" He began blushing like a tomato.

"Yes, I'm Jacqueline Jones, but you can call me Jackie. And thank you for your help. We couldn't have done it without you, Mister… oh, I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Mr. Fred Hunter. But you can call me Freddy."

Then she broke her act. "Ha! Now I know the name of the guy who leaked confidential information from the police."

"DANG IT!"

"Gotcha."

As the others let out a smirk, someone else secretly hearing them from afar thought to himself, "Ah. Clever girl."

Xxx

After letting the police know to watch out for Freddy, which would make Freddy to keep his mouth shut for now, they went to ask Mr. Bucks about any more information he had about his connection to the Fists.

"Now, now. Who is this? I said no interviews. Woah, kid! You look ravishin'," said Mr. Bucks who immediately noticed Jacq in the room. "Didn't know that was you. And your friends are here too… is that mascara?"

"Yes, and some eyeliner. It wasn't on purpose," said Haddock.

Mr. Bucks then immediately reverted to his upset state. "I've been getting numerous calls and numerous letters telling me that everyone's quittin'. And some other people quit for their own safety." He sat down in his desk again. "Sure, it wasn't everyone who quit. I had some people stay with us, but with some of the actors and crew quittin', we won't be able to continue some of our films. Everythin' is put on hold, and I'm beginning to get scared. The police is all around, and we don't have enough time to film or edit anythin' when so many people are filling out complaints or the cops are asking them questions."

"So is it true? Are you're selling the company?" asked Tintin.

"Nah, nah. That was some publicity sell… but I've been considerin' it. What if these threats are true, and someone ends up gettin' killed? Maybe it's best if I do shut it down. That must've been where the rumors started."

"No! Please don't!" said Jacq leaning in front of his desk. "You shouldn't give up! Not now! Not like this! Don't give up just because others are telling you to do it!"

Mr. Bucks tilted his head up at her. "Kid. I'm glad you're showing so much enthusiasm… Now I know how much it feels like to be in your place." Jacq sighed. Mr. Bucks continued, "Anyway, you're still here. I'm sure that if anyone comes to threaten you with a bullet to the head, you'll still be standing here and be loyal."

"Mr. Bucks, I will never leave this company if it matters so much to you," said Jacq.

"Neither will I," said Sally who everyone noticed when she entered the door. She still had her wig on, but she came to talk to Mr. Bucks.

"Oh… easy for you to say, Sally," said Mr. Bucks. "You won't be without a job. You still have other contracts with distributors and film companies. It's everyone else who might lose their jobs. Including me."

"Not so fast," said someone else behind Sally. It was Mr. Calvin in a white suit, and Simon who had brought him in. "I still might be able to help out."

Snowy thought, "Wow. Now almost everyone's been inside this guy's office! How many times have we been here, anyway? About three, four times?"

"… Really? Can you really do that?" said Mr. Buck whose face was lighting up a bit, yet a bit skeptical.

"I do. I saw the opportunity to help out when I read the newspaper." He lit up a cigarette and started smoking it. "You see, I'm on the pre-production of a film, and we're at the casting stage for the moment. It'll guarantee a success according to most of the filmmakers, perhaps an Academy Award. Its low budget and its possible hit at the box-office suggests that it'll make enough profit for both our company and your company as well. If it turns out to be a commercial success, I'll be willing to offer about forty per cent of the profit."

"Forty per cent?" everyone asked.

"That's right. I calculated it myself. Although I could also contribute from my own pocket if it's not enough."

"That's so generous of you!" said Simon.

Mr. Calvin finished half of his cigarette, "On ONE condition." He entered the office to press the cigarette against the silver cigarette dish.

"Blistering Barnacles," said Haddock, "There's always a catch with these business men."

"I'm not asking for much. Just a missing piece to complete the puzzle." He pointed at Jacq. "Her."

Haddock burned out steam and said, "You SICK little… Freshwater jerk! Iconoclast! Forcing her to do such a horrible thing! I knew a lot of men in my time, but YOU'RE just a sexist monster!"

"It's not horrible, it's -" Mr. Calvin's expression changed. "Wait, what do you mean 'sexist'?"

"You can't force her to marry you! She doesn't even love you!"

"WHAT? NO! I want her to be the star of the film! It's not an arranged marriage!"

"… It's not?"

"NO! I'm not forcing anyone else to be anyone's wife, much less MY wife! What made you think such a thing?"

Everyone stared at the Captain awkwardly. "Oh…" said Haddock. "Never mind then. Forget what I said." Perhaps Haddock was thinking too much about Tintin and Jacq's relationship so much that he really was in a "hopeless romantic phase".

"Well, back to what I was saying, we haven't confirmed the male lead, but we're hoping to have a big name actor. As for the female lead, I considered Jacqueline for the part, possibly to make her name big around the media. Her charm and acting skills might be enough for people to fall in love with the movie. The more we attract viewers, the better. Especially when they find out who her parents are, what she did in Bordwell, and that she's friends with very special people. Including the famous Ace Reporter."

Still unsure she said "… I don't know." Tintin looked at Jacq anticipated.

"It's an opportunity of a lifetime, Jacqueline. An offer you can't refuse. On top of that, you can help out with _Vermont_ if it matters so much to you."

"I still need time to think about it."

"I tell you what? How about I invite you to my mansion for dinner and we discuss the film in detail. That way you can truly make up your mind about my little offer."

Jacq pondered for a bit. She then said, "Ok. I'll go to your house and we'll talk about it."

"Very good," said Mr. Calvin shaking her hand. "I hope you can see things my way."

Later, the group went outside walking across the now half-empty studio. Sally tried to adjust her wig before she spotted any reporters and left to the hotel again to tell the girls what had happened. Tintin then asked, "Jacq, I understand that you want to help _Vermont Studios_, but why did you say yes?" He stopped her from walking by standing in front of her. "Tell me you didn't give up on your dream to be a filmmaker."

"Tintin, you know me better than that. I'm not giving up my dream to be a filmmaker. I also have to think about Mr. Calvin and the studio. Mr. Calvin did seem like he wanted to help, but even so I don't know whether I'll accept his offer or not. Even if I do, I'll try to do filmmaking on the side. And if I don't want to act in his film, I'll politely refuse."

Tintin somehow saw her much more sure of herself. Like nothing could pull her down. He didn't know why she was acting this way, but he did admire her attitude. He had also impressed her with that stunt earlier that day. Jacq had always found a way to surprise him every single time.

"So!" said Roxie who walked in front of them. "I heard you were considered for Mr. Calvin's film." She said almost in disgust.

"Sorta…" said Jacq a bit uncomfortable near Roxie. "I don't think I'm going to take it."

"Right. You get everything, but you don't care." Roxie left and went past Jacq, hitting her in the shoulder. "Apparently you're too good to star in a feature." While she was walking away, Tintin just had the urge to scream at her.

**A/N Part 2 **So I'm doing some projects during this summer aside from fan fiction: be sure to check out my film blog Dani and the Screen at Glitterazi.

I haven't thought exactly what my next Tintin and Jacq adventure is gonna be about (maybe just Jacq filming her first movie just as a _Castafiore Emerald_ kind of story), BUT I've considered an idea which I might or might not do: **A Tintin Musical!** Well, to be precise (eh? Get it?), each chapter has a different scenario within the Tintin continuity, like an event in one of the comics, or an event that happened in my fanfic (because I made it part of the continuity), and it'll feature an existing musical number from a musical. Like Thompson and Thomson could sing "If I didn't have you" and Tintin and Jacq could sing a duet like "So Close". I chose a few songs already (especially from Disney. I go mad for Disney), and for some songs I'll be changing the lyrics depending on the scenario, but if you want this to be even more possible, I'd LOVE some songs requests! Maybe if doesn't have to be from a musical. If fitting, it could be a pop or rock song or something (just give me the scenario and I can write that down). What do you think of the idea? What are some songs that someone like Tintin or Haddock could sing on their own? A song for Snowy, if you can think of one? REQUEST! REQUEST! REQUEST!

OH WELL! It's been over a year since I created my account posted **How I met Tintin**! Glad I was able to stick around for so long. And so glad I had so many readers. I wouldn't have been able to work without you guys! Please continue to support my fanfics and THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!

See ya in Chapter 9! Hope not to take too long!


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